


the end of the earth

by Love_Me_Dead



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Black Mercy, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, F/M, Gore, Hospitals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:48:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23237197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Love_Me_Dead/pseuds/Love_Me_Dead
Summary: Malcolm does not show up to deliver his profile. Dani lives a nightmare.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 48
Kudos: 117





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey look another prodigal son fic!!! this is based off a work i wrote for a different fandom many moons ago, re-purposed for prodigal son and specifically brightwell! the title is based off Marina's "End of the Earth" which has been a huge inspiration for this work.
> 
> enjoy!!!

Malcolm was used to the sounds of New York City and he could generally sleep through any noises, once he was asleep. The loud bang that resounded, shook his apartment, however, was enough to wake him up. He sat up in bed and worried it was a gunshot or a bomb. It probably was, knowing New York.

He flicked his restraints off and got up to investigate. He was not a cop, per se, but he had a background in law enforcement and enough weapons to frighten someone. Sunshine chirped when he crossed the room and headed up the stairs. He wasn’t armed with anything other than his phone and he was only in his flannel pajama pants. 

It sounded like it came from the roof, so he padded up the stairs to his office and then up the second set to the roof access. He opened the roof access door and he was hit with a blast of hot air and he rubbed at his eyes against the bright light; it should not be this light out, not at three in the morning.

Dani shifted in her seat. She glanced over at JT, tapping his pen against his desk. She spun her chair from side to side. Gil was sitting in his office, poking at his computer, on the phone. She sighed and turned back towards her paperwork.

“If that kid overslept, I swear to God…” JT mumbled.

Dani looked up at him and shrugged. “At least it means he’s sleeping.”

How Malcolm Bright became the Office Baby was unknown to her.

Gil stepped out of his office, sighing. “He isn’t answering,” he said. “We’ll have to get started without him.”

Dani looked at her phone, still and silent on her desk. “Let me try calling him,” she said, picking up her phone.

Malcolm put his hand up to shield his eyes from the light. He wondered if this was some kind of set-up, a crash and bright lights to disorient him before some boogeyman jumped out of the shadows and overtook him. His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and as the roof came into focus, he wished he had brought a weapon.

There was a smoking portion of his roof, where it was glowing. He thought about turning around, going downstairs and calling 911, but he wanted to make sure he could be specific on the phone. The police were unlikely to come if he had no idea what was going on, if the only thing he had to go on was that it was bright and smelled like smoke.

Malcolm took a cautious step towards the source of the orange light. It smelled of sulfur and smoke and he thought about how Mother would  _ kill _ him if he ruined her property.

“Hello?” He called into the darkness. He had work in the morning and he was not particularly keen on turning up without having had much sleep.

After three unanswered calls and one vaguely threatening voicemail, Dani gave up and walked into the board room. Gil and JT looked up expectantly. 

“He didn’t answer,” she said.

“Maybe he’s getting some sleep for once in his life,” JT said. 

“And not delivering his profile?” Gil said, chuckling. “I mean, I’m all for the kid sleeping more, but we need him here.”

Dani shifted under Gil and JT’s gazes. “Let’s just get started with what we have,” she said. “He’ll probably walk in any second.”

Malcolm stepped closer to the smoking spot on his roof. No one answered him, which was unsurprising. He should turn around and go downstairs, get his phone and call someone, but he did not want to take his eyes off the glowing space in the concrete. He couldn’t figure out what it was.

The concrete was cracked, slightly caved in, and it was blackened. He sighed and wondered how he would explain this to his mother. At the very least, they had the money to repair it quickly. 

The smell of sulphur got stronger the closer he got and he coughed. He should have put on a shirt before he thought of coming outside, at the very least he could use it to cover his mouth. It was probably some stupid prank, committed by some asshole. He would tell Gil about it in the morning, try to bring them to justice.

There was a low buzzing, a vibration that was loud enough to echo in his chest. Malcolm stepped closer, his toes nearly crossing the burnt ring of concrete before something slammed into him, knocked him back.

He stumbled back, tripped, and fell backwards, landing on his back hard enough to wind himself. He attempted to claw his way back up but a sharp pain coursed through his chest - like a stab wound. He cried out as he became acutely aware of a weight settling on his chest that was not altogether metaphorical.

“Fuck!” Malcolm managed before his eyes went wide and his breath caught. He made a strangled noise as tendrils penetrated down to his belly, up to his chest, over his ribs, rendering him useless. He couldn’t breathe. He tried to reach up, grab the thing and tear it off of him, but blackness invaded his vision and his hands moved in slow motion.

There was something inside him.

There was something squeezing at his heart.

At lunch, with all her calls and texts still unanswered, Dani worried. Her worry spiked into fear when Gil reported that Jessica hadn’t heard from Malcolm either. Jessica seemed unconcerned with his radio silence. 

Dani could not explain the bad feeling she had in her stomach. She called Claremont Psychiatric to check if Malcolm had visited at all - he had not. Instead of sitting down with her lunch, she decided to go to his apartment.

“Where are you going?” JT asked when she grabbed her coat and her bag.

“I’m just going to swing by Bright’s apartment,” she said.

Gil walked in front of her, dangling a key from his fingers. “I have a spare key,” he said. “I’ll drive.”

JT shrugged and stood up. “Guess I’m coming, then.”

Dani smiled. The three of them piled into Gil’s car, even though it was only a five minute drive and they could have walked easily. On the drive, JT talked about how he would give Malcolm shit when he found him asleep in bed and Dani tried to relax into the normalcy.

“He was never a partier, was he?” JT asked.

Gil parked in front of his apartment. “Only when he was a teenager,” he said. “He called me drunk out of his mind and begged me not to tell Jessica, so I took him back to my place. The kid nearly ruined my guest bathroom.”

Dani laughed as she climbed out of the backseat. “He can’t hold his liquor? I had no idea,” she said sarcastically. Images of her fastening his restraint for him when he was drunk flashed through her mind. She could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

They approached his apartment and Gil hit the buzzer. Dani waited for a moment, waited for the crackle over the shitty speaker that meant Malcolm was there. Gil buzzed again. JT looked up to the windows. 

Gil sighed and pulled out his key, slid it into the lock. Dani did not want to entertain the possibilities that Malcolm had hurt himself, had done something incredibly stupid, but something was very wrong. 

The door opened and they filed in, up the stairs, and into his apartment. It was dark and quiet and Sunshine’s cage still had a blanket overtop. Dani crossed over and took the blanket off before she turned to see JT and Gil wandering through the apartment, peering at the empty bed. It was unmade, the restraints unlocked and waiting.

“Where the hell is he?” JT asked. 

Gil glanced into the bathroom. “Empty. There’s an office upstairs.”

Dani climbed the stairs. She thought about pulling her gun, searching the scene. “Clear!” She shouted as she opened the office door. 

“The roof access is open,” JT said behind her, pointing up a second set of stairs. 

Her hands shook as she considered the possibilities of the roof. If he’d jumped, there would be a body, but maybe he had done something else. She stepped out onto the roof and looked over. Malcolm, laying on the concrete in nothing but flannel pajama pants.

“Bright, there was a meeting,” Dani called, striding over. JT and Gil hung by the door, 

He did not stir and her fear spiked. She sprinted over to him, skidded to a stop. His hair was soft, falling over his face, and his eyes were open and bloodshot, his pupils pinpricks and darting around in every direction. Dani grabbed his arm, ready to shake him awake, until she saw the  _ thing _ on his chest.

It was a black mass, rubbery-looking and semi-circular, the same colour as an oil slick. It quivered like a heartbeat, long tendrils snaking under his skin, spreading out like veins and pulsing in time with the main pod. It was literally making Malcolm’s skin crawl.

Dani’s stomach churned. Even in horror movies, things like that did not exist. “Gil, call an ambulance!”

JT and Gil rushed over. JT retched at the sight of the thing on his chest. “The fuck is  _ that _ ?”

Gil stepped away, on his phone. Dani noted how he ran his hand over his beard.

Her breath was ragged. She reached down, pressed her fingers under his jaw and felt a steady heartbeat in time with the pod on his chest. 

“Should we… try to peel it off him?” JT asked, standing a foot away from Malcolm.

Dani shook her head. She had no idea but she did not want to touch it. She wanted to tear it off, go downstairs and grab one of his collector’s weapons and cut it out of his skin, but she had no medical knowledge and she didn’t want to nick an artery with her impromptu surgery.

She heard sirens approach and Gil opened doors for them. A swarm of paramedics flooded out of the roof access door, dressed in hazmat suits and pulling a stretcher behind them. Dani stepped out of their way, even though she didn’t want to let go of Malcolm’s arm, and watched in horror as they loaded his body into a bio-bag. It looked too similar to a body bag, but it was fitted with a long tube connected to a respirator. 

“What is that?” JT asked.

“It’s for your protection,” one of the paramedics assured them. 

The way the paramedics spoke about it made Dani think that they had dealt with something like this before. Part of her wanted to call Edrisa, ask her about what was going on, if she knew what the fuck this was, but the paramedics told them that they were going to Bellevue. They were not allowed to ride in the ambulance with Malcolm, for their own protection.

Dani had a thousand questions as she walked through Malcolm’s apartment again, her hands shaking. She stopped on her way out to feed Sunshine. Mechanically, she got back into the backseat of Gil’s car, the three of them silent.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly, this whole social distancing thing is great for my writing. enjoy!!!

They were met at the hospital, around a private entrance, by a group of nurses with masks over their noses and mouths, wearing gowns and gloves. They were led through a labyrinth of hallways to a private wing of the hospital, one that Dani did not know existed. She wanted to stop, to ask where they were going, ask when she could see Malcolm again.

They were herded into separate rooms for questioning and Dani glanced at JT and Gil once more before she ducked into an exam room. She felt ridiculous climbing up on the bed, sitting sideways with her feet dangling off the edge, and she wondered what need she would have for a checkup when Malcolm was the one who was hurt.

A doctor, wearing a mask and gloves, entered and introduced herself. “I’m Dr. Perez,” she said.

Dani shifted. The paper covering on the bed crinkled beneath her. “I’m Detective Dani Powell,” she said.

The doctor sat down, logged into her computer and tapped on the keyboard.

“What’s going on?” Dani asked.

“We will let you know in due time,” Dr. Perez said. “For now, please cooperate with these questions.”

Dr. Perez rattled off a list of questions. What time did she find him? Did he speak? Was there anyone else around? Dani watched her tap her answers into her computer. She glanced at the door. 

This was not how she imagined her day going.

“Last question, Miss Powell,” Dr. Perez said. “Did you make contact with the mass?”

Dani’s eyebrows knit together. “What?” 

“Did you touch it?” 

“No.” She wanted to, she thought about it, but she did not. The wet squelches it made as it burrowed deeper into Malcolm’s skin echoed in her mind.

“Did you touch the affected?”

“Malcolm?”

“Correct.”

Dani thought about her hands on his arm, his skin warm. “Yes.”

Dr. Perez’s gaze snapped up at her. “Where?”

“Uh, his arm?” Dani said. “His right arm, his shoulder…”

Dr. Perez stood, opened the door and shouted to her colleagues in the hallway. Dani hopped off the bed, attempted to catch what the doctor was saying. 

Two nurses in hazmat suits came in and grabbed Dani by the arms, leading her down the hallway. She struggled against them, nearly dragged off her feet. She shouted, begged them to tell her what was going on as they opened the door to another room further down the hall, decorated with stainless steel and white tile and hanging plastic sheets. 

“What are you doing?” Dani shouted.

“Ma’am, this is for your protection,” the nurse said gently. “Please undress. You may be contaminated and we must dispose of your clothing.”

Dani looked down at her outfit. It was stupid and shallow of her to consider refusing, saying that she liked her clothes. 

“Please,” the nurse said. “After you are undressed, you will be given a decontamination shower.”

She took a deep breath and removed her belt, handed her gun, badge, and phone to the nurse before she undressed and folded her clothes. The nurse slid them into a red bag labelled ‘combustibles’.

She felt horribly exposed in front of them, completely naked in front of these nameless, faceless nurses. They weren’t telling her what was wrong with Malcolm, why she had to decontaminate, but the nurses handed her a fresh cake of soap and pointed her towards the shower.

The water ran cold out of the taps and Dani hissed, tried to relax into it as she soaped herself up and rinsed off. Once she stepped out, shivering, she was handed a scratchy, sterile towel that smelled like nothing. After, they brought her into a separate room that looked like a prison cell with nothing but a bed, a toilet and a sink.

“When you are dry, you can put this on,” the nurse said, handing her a blue jumpsuit folded up and wrapped in plastic. “We will have your friends bring your clothes later on.”

Dani shivered into the blanket. Her hair dripped onto her shoulders. 

“You will remain in quarantine for twenty-four hours,” the nurse said. “There is a phone by your bed.”

She opened her mouth to say something but the nurses ducked out of the room and shut the door behind themselves. She flinched when she heard the lock latch behind them.

Dani settled onto the bed once she had put on the jumpsuit. It was made of soft cotton, but she still missed her own clothes - skinny jeans that she could still move in and comfortable sweaters. She leaned against the wall and found the phone. She picked up the receiver, wrapped in plastic. The nurse on the other end was attentive and kind, asked if she needed any water, but Dani demanded to speak to Gil and JT.

It took too long for the phone to ring.

“Dani?” Gil’s voice was clear over the phone and Dani shut her eyes.

“Yeah. Hey,” she said. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine,” JT said. “What happened to you? Are you okay?”

“I’m in quarantine,” Dani said. She could imagine Gil and JT leaned over together over the phone, holding it between them so they could both hear her.

“Are you okay?” Gil asked.

Dani smiled at the concern in his voice. She wrapped an arm around herself. “I’m fine. I just made the terrible mistake of touching Malcolm and they’re worried I’m infected, whatever that means.”

Silence. She knew that Gil would be brainstorming a way to get her out of quarantine. 

“Have you seen him?” She asked.

“No,” Gil said, “they won’t let us.”

“Maybe he’s in surgery,” JT offered.

Dani tipped her head back against the cold wall. “Can one of you do me a favour? Grab me some clothes?”

“They took your clothes?” Gil asked, incredulous.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve got a bag in my car at work that’s got everything. They took my gun and badge, too.”

There was a pause. 

“I’ll get it for you, don’t worry,” Gil said.

“Sorry, Dani, they want us to fill out some paperwork,” JT said. “We’ll see you soon.”

“Okay,” she said.

The line crackled as it went dead and she hung up the receiver. Soon, as JT said, would only take twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours without her phone, without any social interaction apart from the phone against the wall. 

Dani managed to curl up on the uncomfortable bed and sleep for a few hours. The bed was about as forgiving as a wooden plank and the sterile blanket did nothing to offer warmth. She wanted her clothes, she wanted her phone and she wanted some company. 

She got a call from Gil after five hours. She tried not to think about how she had nineteen hours left. There was no news from Malcolm and Dani hoped that he was in surgery to get that thing off his chest. She wondered if Gil was investigating where the thing came from.

She laid on her back on the bed, considering getting up and attempting some yoga. She had no references, nor a yoga mat, but the jumpsuit was fairly forgiving and she would feel better if she moved around. Finally, the door hissed open, the airtight seal broken, and in stepped a new doctor.

“Good evening, Detective Powell,” she said. “I’m Dr. Henry.”

Dani immediately sat up, conscious of the thin jumpsuit material. “Has it been twenty-four hours?” She asked. It felt like it had been an eternity, but it also felt like a few minutes.

Dr. Henry smiled. “No, but your Lieutenant had a few words for us about our quarantine,” she said. “If you were contaminated, you would show symptoms by now.”

Dani bit back any insults and nodded. She tried to remind herself that quarantines were important, that they had a purpose, but hers felt unfair. Dr. Henry motioned for her to come out and Dani followed her out, conscious of her bare feet, to a private waiting room where Gil and JT were waiting with Jessica and Ainsley.

She wrapped her arms over her chest. Gil handed her the bag she kept in her trunk.

“Nice suit,” JT said.

Dani made a face and ducked into the nearest bathroom. Once she was dressed, she returned to the waiting room, sitting between Gil and JT. Ainsley and Jessica were holding hands.

Dr. Henry sat down, perched on the edge of one of the chairs. “Malcolm’s case is an extremely rare one,” she said. She sighed and took her glasses off. “What you must understand is that the entity that has attached itself to him is not of our world.”

Jessica frowned. “Not of our world?” She repeated.

“We have only seen it three times before; once in Thailand, once in Austria, and once in Argentina,” Dr. Henry said.

“What is it?” JT asked.

“That’s a little harder to explain. I have been present at all three previous cases and studying it once the host to which it attaches itself passes is very difficult without risking it attaching to a researcher.”

“Once the host… passes?” Ainsley asked.

Dani swallowed hard. “Can’t you just cut it off?”

“Yes, we’ve observed that it stays with the host until they pass away,” Dr. Henry said. “Cutting it off is not easy. Any time a foreign body - say a scalpel or a knife - approaches, it stops the host’s heart. If we were to forcibly remove it, not only do we risk killing Malcolm, but we risk it attaching to someone else. As such, everyone who comes into contact with him is at risk.”

Dani stared at the powder-blue walls and the calming paintings of nature scenes. There was a poster directly across from her about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. She focused on the image of the yellowed teeth and took a deep breath.

“What does it want?” Ainsley asked. “Like, blood?”

“It is a parasite,” Dr. Henry explained. “It survives off serotonin and the fast oscillating gamma rhythms produced by the human brain during sleep. REM sleep.”

Dani could feel her heart pounding in her chest. A normal morning where Malcolm didn’t come in time for a meeting and now this. He was going to die.

“Can we see him?” Gil asked. His face was pale.

“Before you go, I must warn you, it is not pretty,” Dr. Henry said. “It may be disturbing.”

Each of them was given a mask and a pair of gloves. Dani’s hands shook enough that stuffing them into gloves proved difficult. She thought about Edrisa, how all of this would make sense to her and she would think it was so cool. She would lighten the mood. They would have to call her later.

Dr. Henry led them down the hall to a locked, windowless door. She swiped her key-card and it beeped, glancing back at them before she opened the door and motioned for them to go in.

Inside the room, they are greeted with the steady beeping of a heart monitor and the hiss of a respirator. Dani stepped in behind Gil.

The bed was covered with a Plexiglass cage that latched to the bed with a few heavy locks. IV tubes, the respirator, the pulse oximeter all threaded through the glass with two-way, airtight seals to deliver fluids and the cannula nubbins to his nose.

Malcolm is laid out on the bed, his arms at his sides and his hair fanning across the pillow. Jessica stepped up to the glass and laid her hands on top of the thing that separated her from her son.

“The incubator is just a precaution,” Dr. Henry said, “for now.”

“Until he’s dead,” Jessica said, a hint of venom in her voice. Ainsley joined her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 

Dani walked around to the other side. Malcolm had a white mask over his eyes and he looked more relaxed than he did earlier. He still wore his flannel pajama pants with a grey plaid pattern. The mass on his chest throbbed in time with the heart monitor and there were more tendrils than before, reaching towards his hips and his collarbones while they slithered and pulsed. The skin above them was red and raw.

“Does it hurt?” Ainsley asked. “He’s bleeding.”

“We do not believe that he can feel anything. Or that he is aware of anything happening to him,” Dr. Henry said. “During normal REM sleep, we experience sleep paralysis so we do not accidentally hurt ourselves. We believe he is experiencing just this.”

Dani thought about his restraints on his bed at home.

“It is a very gentle attack,” Dr. Henry said. She reminded Dani of Edrisa. “My staff call it the ‘black mercy’.”

Gil was pointedly not looking at the cage around Malcolm. JT hung by the door, looking vaguely green.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to contain the bleeding. If we get too close, the entity goes into survival mode and it is our worry that he will die before we can complete the stitches,” Dr. Henry said, checking the heart monitor. “Transfusions may become necessary if we do not find a solution within twenty-four hours.”

Dani felt like throwing up. She hadn’t even eaten lunch. “How close to finding a solution are you?” She asked.

“Nowhere near, I’m afraid. We do not have enough data.”

“Is there anything you can do?” Jessica asked. She was crying, silent tears cutting through the makeup on her cheeks.

“We have our top staff testing theories,” Dr. Henry said. “Other doctors are being flown in as well.”

Dani looked down at Malcolm just in time to watch a tendril spread up to his throat with an awful squelching sound.

JT gagged and excused himself. Gil followed soon after, green. Jessica kept her hand firmly on the top of the glass, her chin quivering. Dani looked away.

“How long do you have to find a solution?” Ainsley asked. 

“Around five days,” Dr. Henry said.

“Can we stay here with him?” Dani asked. She stuffed her hands into her pockets.

“Of course,” Dr. Henry said. “You may touch him using the gloves but do not go within two inches of any tendrils or the mass itself.”

Dani hadn’t noticed the rubber gloves hanging inside the cage, their ends open so she could stuff her hands in and touch him. 

“Excuse me, I am going to speak with my colleagues. Hopefully, I will return with good news,” Dr. Henry said. 

She exited, the door beeping behind her. Dani grabbed a chair from against the wall and brought it behind Jessica. Ainsley reached over to her when Jessica collapsed into the chair, taking her hand and squeezing it, a gentle comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave a comment, kudos, or come chat on [my tumblr](mochalou.tumblr.com) if you have any questions!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to malcolm's dreams! and happy prodigal son monday!

Malcolm woke to music and the sound of the hood fan buzzing. 

He woke slowly and he blinked, dazed and sleepy from his nap on the couch. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair, shocked to find that he could not remember his dreams. For a moment, he panicked that he had fallen asleep in the middle of cooking and he must have burnt something, but it just smelled wonderful, like onions and garlic sauteed together.

Standing at the stove, though, was Dani, wearing one of his sweaters and stirring something in a pot. Malcolm stood up, the couch squeaking under him and Dani turned, smiling. Her hair was tied up with loose curls falling into her face.

“Good morning,” she said. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah,” Malcolm said, stretching. He could not remember sleeping so well.

Dani smiled, brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and brought the spoon to her lips, tasting the contents of the pot.

“What are you making?” Malcolm asked, standing and padding over to the kitchen. He stood hip-to-hip with her, wrapping an arm around her waist. 

It was a soup, dark and brothy and simmering happily on the stove. Carrots and celery and chunks of beef bubbled up to the surface. “Beef stew,” Dani said. She dipped the wooden spoon into the broth again and offered it to him.

Malcolm carefully sipped the broth off the spoon and hummed. Full-flavoured and perfectly seasoned. “That’s perfect,” he said.

Dani smiled, ducked her head. “You’re crowding me, Malcolm,” she said, shoving him gently. “Get bowls and spoons.”

Malcolm kissed her cheek before he reached into the cupboards and grabbed the heavy ceramic bowls and two spoons. He scratched absentmindedly at his chest.

“There’s some rolls, too,” she said, moving the pot onto a waiting trivet and getting a ladle. “I put them in the oven to warm.”

He grabbed an oven mitt and pulled the tray of rolls out of the oven, pouring them into a bowl. He could have kept them on the tray, but it felt more adult to put them in a bowl. Dani slid the filled bowls of soup to the other side of the counter and left the pot, still mostly full of soup, sitting on the counter, steaming.

“Wine?” Malcolm asked, grabbing two glasses and a bottle of pinot noir.

“Trying to get me drunk, Bright?” Dani asked, sitting at the counter and grinning at him.

He chuckled and poured them both a glass before he sat down next to her. The stew was perfect and the rolls were delicious and he thought for a moment about how lucky he was. He pulled a small leaf out of his soup and wrinkled his nose.

“What is this?” He asked, laying it on the counter. 

Dani looked at him. “That’s a bay leaf,” she said. “You’ve never seen a bay leaf before?”

He picked it up, still wet and warm from the soup, and he sniffed it. “It’s a leaf - in my food.”

“It’s for flavour,” Dani said, rolling her eyes. “Have you never made soup before?”

“Why would I when it’s so readily available in cans?” Malcolm asked. “And, in case you forgot, we had cooks growing up.”

Dani laughed. “You are so spoiled.”

They sopped up the remaining soup in their bowls with the last roll, which they split, and then spent a minute sipping their wine before Malcolm hopped up and started to clean up. He saved the leftover soup and filled the sink with soapy water. It felt like a waste to run the dishwasher with so few dishes.

He washed the dishes and Dani dried them, putting them back in their respective spots in the cupboards. Malcolm watched her, the way she knew where everything went and the way she looked in his sweater. She was breathtaking. 

Everything was dried and put away, the counter given a wipe, and they curled up together on the couch with their wine glasses. Malcolm clicked the TV on, switched over to ADN. He set the remote down and reached up, scratching his chest with his free hand.

“Are you okay?” Dani asked, leaning forward and setting down her empty wine glass on the coffee table in front of them.

“Yeah, why do you ask?” Malcolm asked.

Dani reached up and laid her hand over Malcolm’s, which was still rubbing at his chest. “That. You keep touching your chest.”

“I didn’t even notice,” Malcolm said, grinning.

Dani narrowed her eyes.

“It’s fine,” he said, turning their hands and lacing their fingers together, squeezing gently. “I must have slept stupidly when I had a nap earlier.”

“You’ll be fine to go on a stakeout with Gil in the morning?” Dani asked. 

“I’ll be  _ fine _ ,” he said. 

He kissed her and she reciprocated, her fingers digging gently into his shoulder. Malcolm’s head spun even though it had been months now and Dani nearly lived here but he still wasn’t used to getting to kiss her whenever he wanted. JT and Gil had warned them against PDA, especially at work, but they were keeping things professional. 

They watched Ainsley’s report together before Malcolm flipped to a rerun of  _ Criminal Minds _ . Dani protested - “don’t we have enough murder” - and switched to  _ The Great British Bake Off _ . It was a perfect evening, snowing lightly outside and Dani in his arms.

Dani broke their cuddle first, extricating herself from Malcolm and taking their wine glasses to the sink. “You have to be up early,” she said. “It’s time for bed.”

Reluctantly, Malcolm got up as well, switched off the TV. Dani ducked into the bathroom and Malcolm put a sheet over Sunshine’s cage. He started shutting off the lights around the apartment and set an alarm on his phone. He was to meet Gil at the precinct at six AM tomorrow morning. 

Dani stepped out of the bathroom, carrying Malcolm’s hoodie and her pants. She wore only a soft t-shirt and her panties and he couldn’t help but stare as she padded over to the bed. 

“Your apartment is freezing,” she said, climbing under the blankets.

Malcolm smiled and stepped into the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth, splashed his face, and dried off before he returned to the bed. Dani was already half-asleep and she scooted over when Malcolm got into bed with her.

Her hand, still cold, laid on his chest, on the spot that throbbed. Malcolm could smell the coconut in her hair, the floral notes in her perfume, and another scent that he could only identify as Dani, as home. He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Goodnight, Dani,” he whispered.

She pressed a kiss to his chest, beside her hand, above his heart. “Love you,” she mumbled.

He would never get used to hearing her say it. “I love you, too.”

Malcolm’s alarm buzzed and started blaring at five in the morning. He groaned and turned over, towards the window, where the world was still black. Dani reached over him and fumbled with his phone until the alarm shut off and she laid her head on his chest.

“Get up,” she mumbled.

Malcolm whined. “Don’t wanna,” he said, arms wrapping around Dani. She was warm and soft against him.

“You love stake outs,” she said. “ _ Go _ .”

“It’s cold,” Malcolm whinged.

“Of course it’s cold, it’s five in the morning,” she said, shoving lightly at his chest and frowning when Malcolm flinched. “Are you still sore?”

“No, your hands are cold,” he said. 

Dani turned away from him, wrapping herself up in the blankets. “Get going.”

Malcolm got out of bed, shivering as soon as the cold hit his skin. He padded towards the bathroom, the hardwood floor nearly burning his toes as he walked. 

Once he had showered, he stepped back into the bedroom to see Dani had once again fallen asleep. He got dressed quickly, attempting to stave off any cold, before he went to the kitchen and boiled water for the French press. Malcolm made himself coffee, took his meds, and even managed to eat a piece of toast before he wrapped himself up in his coat, a scarf, and gloves, and left for the precinct.

The world was freezing and silent at five-thirty in the morning. The snow had stopped falling but the air was bitter cold and he squinted against the wind. He kicked himself for not taking Dani’s car but he had yet to renew his license and he would soon be in Gil’s car, warm and safe like always.

The precinct was warm and Malcolm took a minute to let it settle into his bones before he knocked on Gil’s office door. He looked up, exhausted, and he yawned. 

“Ready?” Malcolm asked.

Gil picked up his travel mug. “Let’s go.”

“That’s only coffee in there, right?” Malcolm teased.

Gil sighed and handed the travel mug to Malcolm, who held it while Gil shrugged into his coat. It was only a short walk to his car but the leather was unrelenting and cold under him as he sat down. 

They were on their way to a suspected body dump, if Malcolm’s profile was correct (and it usually was). Their killer, a white male in his forties, was torturing and killing young men who worked in construction. Another young man, James Collins, had gone missing a few days ago, and all of the previous bodies were found dumped in Hudson Yards.

Gil parked by the rail yard and took his coffee back from Malcolm. He did not yet shut the car off - they had hours ahead of them.

“Do you think James Collins is still alive?” Gil asked. His voice was rough with sleep.

Malcolm nodded. “I think so,” he said. “Probably fairly beat up, but we know that our killer is strangling them here.” He motioned to the rail yard. “This place is significant for him. Something happened here…”

“How are you so awake at six in the morning?” Gil mumbled.

“Years of practice,” Malcolm answered, grinning.

“You’ve been sleeping better since you and Dani started seeing each other.”

Malcolm ducked his head, rubbed his nose. “Well…” He started, glancing out the window and trying to hide his smile.

“I’m glad you two are doing well,” Gil said. 

“Thanks.”

They stared off into the darkness. According to the weather report, the sun was not due to rise until well into seven o’clock. 

Gil shut off the car when they saw a car pull up. The engine shut off and the headlights died and Malcolm blinked, trying to readjust his eyes to the darkness. A man got out of the car and opened the back door. Both Malcolm and Gil stood up, out of the car, and Gil drew his gun and flicked the headlights on.

“NYPD, put your hands up!” 

Malcolm could make out a pair of bare feet in the backseat of the car. He felt awkward, facing a killer unarmed, but his job did not allow him access to a firearm.

The man turned, raised his hands. Gil approached. He went down easily, knew he was cornered, but Gil pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants. Malcolm radioed for an ambulance and rushed over once the suspect was in handcuffs. The body in the backseat was alive, a young man who matched the description of James Collins.

Malcolm let his breath out as Gil read the suspect his rights. He handed him off to another officer as paramedics carefully got James Collins out of the backseat of the sedan. 

They went back to the precinct and Malcolm sat with Gil while he filled out an arrest report. It was so easy - a perfect arrest and it nearly made Malcolm giddy at the thought of interrogating him. 

“Stop bouncing your leg,” Gil said.

Malcolm grinned. “It was a perfect arrest, Gil.”

“Apparently you’re my good luck charm,” Gil said.

“I should go on more stake-outs.”

“Not what I meant.”

“I missed going on stake-outs with you,” Malcolm said. 

Gil looked up, chuckled. “You’re nuts, kid.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brief warning for medical procedures, and medical procedures gone wrong, at that. tread carefully, and enjoy!

Dani spent a lot of her time watching Malcolm sleep. As disgusting as the Black Mercy was, she could not take her eyes off it, like looking at a crime scene. She could not take her eyes off the network of tendrils snaking through his skin like something out of a horror movie with blood collecting on the stark white hospital sheets. The tendrils reached towards his back, grasped at his ribs; she couldn’t tell if they stopped or if they burrowed deeper into his body.

The one sliding up his throat had made it to his chin, starting to reach up into his cheek under his signature stubble. Dani often wondered if Malcolm owned a razor. She thought about how his appearance would be changed if he survived this. 

Dani stood, stretched, and moved around to the other side of the incubator. Jessica and Ainsley had gone to get something to eat. Gil was talking to his bosses about his team taking some time to deal with this. JT was in the hallway, on the phone with Tally, letting her know he would be home late. Dani didn’t want to leave. 

She laid her hands on the glass over Malcolm. She wanted to touch him, brush his hair out of his eyes, squeeze his shoulder.

The steady beep of the heart monitor picked up. Dani did not react. It happened for the first time a few hours ago before Jessica and Ainsley left. The three of them had perked up, wondered if they should get a doctor. After a few minutes of tense silence and unbroken staring at the cage, they relaxed. The second time, Ainsley wondered aloud if it was a good sign. They ignored the third time.

Dani sighed. The mass beat in time with the heart monitor. His chest rose and fell with the hiss of the respirator. 

Jessica had offered her house for any of them to stay in during this time. Dani thought about going, standing in Malcolm’s childhood home instead of focusing on this but she could not bear the thought of leaving.

“Someone will have to be here if he wakes up,” Dani said earlier.

But now, getting closer and closer to the evening, Dani wasn’t certain that he would wake up any time soon. She slumped into the chair beside his bed and let her breath out, her elbows resting on her knees.

It was too fucking quiet.

“It’s probably your own fault,” Dani mumbled, her voice rough. She cleared her throat. “The universe getting you back for all the stupid shit you do on cases.”

Her mind ran down the list: chopping off a man’s hand, nearly injecting himself with a paralytic agent, getting bit by a snake… and those were only the first few days she knew him. She expected one of his wild antics to backfire at some point and one of them had. Instead, he had some kind of alien monster strapped to his chest that would kill him.

Dani rested her hand against the incubator again. She drummed her fingers on it, partially hopeful that she could annoy him awake. A very small part of her was glad that he was finally getting some sleep.

Hesitantly, Dani stood up and pushed her hands into the gloves hanging inside the glass cage. She glanced at the Black Mercy, which did not seem to mind or notice the intrusion. Taking a deep breath, she reached over to his head, avoiding the tendril in his cheek, and brushed his hair out of his eyes. She couldn’t feel anything through the thick rubber.

“Do you ever get a haircut?” She mumbled. His hair was bone-straight.

Nothing happened. Malcolm did not wake up, miraculously unscathed.

She sighed and continued brushing a hand through his hair. It didn’t do anything for him, but it helped her feel better. “Is this how your nightmares feel?” She asked. 

Dani pulled her hands out of the gloves. She was still wearing the nitrile gloves from earlier. She pulled them off and tossed them in the trash can beside his bed before she rubbed her hands over her face and sat down. There was no change when she opened her eyes: same unconscious bastard, same throbbing black horror show.

The door beeped and another doctor, one with a clipped German accent whose name she couldn’t remember, walked in.

“Good evening,” she said. “Any changes?”

“His heart sped up a few times,” Dani said. She tried to keep the hope out of her voice. If Malcolm was not awake, there was nothing that his increased heart rate could tell them.

The doctor nodded and checked the monitors. “There’s good news.”

Dani shifted in the chair, swallowed. “Oh?”

“Some specialists have arrived and we have planned a laser trial for the morning.”

There was a flutter of hope in her belly and she tried to quash it. “Is - is it likely to work?”

“It has never been attempted before,” the doctor said, approaching the incubator. She frowned and checked the monitors once more.

Dani stood, stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Is something wrong?” 

“You said there has been no change over the last few hours?”

“No change,” she said, her heart pounding under her ribs. 

“He’s crying.”

Dani stepped closer to the incubator, tried to find an angle where the fluorescent lights weren’t reflecting off the glass and she could clearly see his face. His face was still the same, ashen and slack, but now there were tear tracks on his cheeks, trailing into his ears.

The doctor picked up a clipboard and scribbled something down. “Perhaps our theory of sleep paralysis was incorrect,” she said. “If so, I imagine he is in a great deal of pain.”

Her hand against the glass, Dani cannot take her eyes off Malcolm. She had never seen him cry before.

“Let me call the doctors monitoring his brain activity,” she said. “Perhaps they will have new information.”

The doctor strode to the phone mounted by the door and mumbled into it. She thought of the first case they worked together, when he dared Carter Berkhead to inject him with the paralytic agent, and how he had nearly cried then. She tore her gaze away from his face and clenched her hands into fists against the glass. She needed to go home and she needed to sleep. Maybe when she woke up, it would all be over.

“It isn’t what I was expecting,” the doctor said.

Dani nodded, licking her lips and tucking them into her mouth.

“Fifteen minutes ago, he had a huge surge in endorphins. He isn’t having a nightmare at all. He is having a very pleasant lucid dream.”

“Why is he crying, then?” Dani asked.

The doctor shrugged. “You know him better than I do,” she said. “What would make him so happy that he would be moved to tears?”

_ “Goodnight, Dani,” he whispered. _

_ She pressed a kiss to his chest, beside her hand, above his heart. “Love you,” she mumbled. _

_ He would never get used to hearing her say it. “I love you, too.” _

Dani shook her head. Theories of his father and his family flowed through her head. “I… I don’t know.”

Shortly thereafter, the doctors insisted she go home and Dani did not fight. She ordered a Lyft to Gil’s address.

She pressed her hand flat against the cool glass and looked down at Malcolm, still asleep but still alive. “I’m going,” she announced. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”

His tears had dried, leaving marks where they ran down to his ears. Dani wanted to reach in and wipe them away, but she did not want to risk getting too close to the tendril working its way up his cheek. She didn’t want to kill her friend.

The Lyft arrived and Dani slid into the backseat, leaning her head back against the headrest. It smelled like air freshener, artificially clean. She glanced back at the hospital as they pulled away, glowing against the night sky.

What a mess.

The warmth of the heater combined with the comforting ambience of nighttime driving nearly lulled Dani to sleep. She never imagined this morning when she left the house that she would end up at the hospital. 

The driver pulled up to Gil’s house and Dani thanked him before getting out. She walked up the driveway, past his car and the rose bush to his front door. Thoughts of turning away, ordering another Lyft and going home raced through her head but she pushed them aside and knocked on the door.

Gil answered the door, still dressed in his clothes from earlier. He carried a tumbler with a small amount of amber liquid in it. “Come in,” he said.

Dani stepped in and knelt down to untie her boots. She noticed JT’s shoes placed neatly next to Gil’s collection.

“JT is here,” he said. “Thought he could use a drink after tonight.” He paused. “You could, too.”

Dani breathed out a chuckle. “That obvious?”

Gil led her into his cozy living room, a place where Dani had slept many times in the past. There were his wedding photos and, Dani noticed for the first time, a few pictures of Malcolm - his high school graduation portrait and a photo of the two of them at his graduation. JT sat on the couch, nursing a beer.

Dani sat down in an armchair currently occupied by Gil’s cat, Theodore, perching on the edge so as to not disturb him. She reached back and brushed at his fur gently. Gil handed her a glass with bourbon. 

“I spoke to a hospital liaison before we left,” Gil said. “This whole… Black Mercy thing is strictly confidential.”

Theodore, half-asleep, purred under her hand and Dani nodded.

“They almost had us sign an NDA,” JT said, sighing. “We can’t tell anyone. I’m not even supposed to tell Tally.”

“What about Edrisa?” Dani asked. She looked up at Gil’s face, his brows knit together. “I mean, she’s going to wonder where Bright is and she would want to visit him.”

Gil sighed and JT drank his beer. Theodore sat up and stretched, yawned, and climbed into Dani’s lap. She sat back in the chair and let him curl up, purring and warm.

“Edrisa would love this shit,” JT said.

“Fine,” Gil said. “But I’ll blame it on one of you.”

Dani sipped her drink. It burned up to her nose and she managed to swallow without coughing. She couldn’t stop thinking of Malcolm crying in his sleep earlier. 

“You two can stay here tonight,” Gil announced, standing. “You know your way around. I’m getting to bed.”

He took his empty glass into the kitchen, wished them both a good night, and padded up the stairs. Theodore squeaked when he realized Gil was gone, scrambled off Dani’s lap, and followed him upstairs.

JT stood after a minute and sighed. “He’s gonna be okay,” he said. “If there’s anyone who can overcome an alien parasite, it’s that kid.”

Dani smiled half-heartedly, nodding. JT went upstairs and she took a moment, going over to the picture of Malcolm on the shelf. He wore the same smile as ever, bright and warm, and Gil looked so proud of him. She tore her gaze away, put her empty glass in the kitchen, and went upstairs to bed. 

Dani woke in the morning from an uneasy sleep in Gil’s guest room to a knock on the door. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, sat up. “Hello?”

Ainsley pushed the door open. “Hey, sorry,” she said. She wore jeans and a sweater and no makeup. 

“It’s okay,” Dani said, clicking on her phone. It was just past eight in the morning. 

“Uh, Gil made breakfast for everyone,” she said, leaning against the doorway.

Dani nodded, sat up. “Thank you.”

“Dr. Voigt and Dr. Henry called. The laser trial is at ten.”

“Okay. I’ll be right down.”

Ainsley nodded and shut the door behind her. Voices echoed up from downstairs. Unmistakably Gil and Jessica, but she knew JT would be there too. If he couldn’t tell Tally about the Black Mercy, he would never go home. 

Dani washed up and got downstairs to a quick breakfast. She could hardly stomach a single bite but she knew that she would never get through the day with an empty stomach. Jessica greeted her with the smell of alcohol on her breath, barely masked under her perfume, and a face of freshly applied makeup. Dani did not comment on the shaking of her hands.

They took Jessica’s car to the hospital, driven by a chauffeur, and Dani felt supremely awkward in the backseat, stuffed between Ainsley and JT.

Dr. Henry and Dr. Voigt stood outside Malcolm’s room with a fleet of other doctors. They lead them down the hallway, explaining that they have moved him to a treatment room. 

“It is akin to removing tissue with a laser,” Dr. Henry explained. “But we are operating from a distance since we cannot get close to the mass.”

“How likely is it to work?” Ainsley asked. She slipped her hand into Jessica’s, squeezing until her knuckles were white.

They stopped outside a door, larger, with another key card reader. Dr. Voigt scanned them in, propped the door open for them. 

“It may work perfectly, it may not work at all,” Dr. Henry said. “We have never tried it before.”

It was just like Malcolm to be a guinea pig against the treatment of an alien parasite.

They stepped into the treatment room. Malcolm was laid out on the table, the plexiglass incubator removed. Dani swallowed when she saw that the amount of tendrils had doubled overnight, that the one on his jaw had reached up into his cheek, bowed and feathered like a fern. She wondered if it would be better if she stayed in the hall. 

Above the table was a large mechanical arm attached to a track on the ceiling with thick, heavy cables. The cables ran back to a podium situated near the end of the bed. They were herded into the far corner of the room, bumping shoulders, and Dani wondered why they weren’t watching from above, from behind the wall.

“We will be monitoring his brain waves and his vitals,” Dr. Henry said. “If all goes according to plan, the laser will sever the connection while simultaneously destroying the mass.”

They were each handed a pair of dark tinted glasses. Dani slid hers on and immediately felt like she should not be wearing them indoors.

“If it doesn’t go to plan?” Gil asked, clasping his hands together in front of him.

“It may have adverse effects,” Dr. Henry said. “As it is an untested method, we do not know how Malcolm or the mass may react to the laser.”

Dr. Voigt took her place behind the podium and Dani looked down at her feet. Gil’s breakfast flopped uneasily in her stomach. Ainsley reached over and took her hand, squeezing. She squeezed back gratefully.

“Could it kill him?” Jessica asked.

Dr. Henry glanced over at Dr. Voigt at the podium. “I imagine so.”

Her nausea tripled and she held onto Ainsley’s hand to keep herself upright.

“We’re ready!” One of the doctors called out.

“Please refrain from leaving the room while the procedure is in progress,” Dr. Henry said. “We cannot risk the mass getting into the hospital. The doctors are armed.”

Dr. Voigt turned on the laser and it hummed, loud and low, as it shifted to point directly at Malcolm on the bed. The doctors spoke to each other and Dani did not pay attention to them, instead holding onto Ainsley’s hand.

“Beginning phase one,” Dr. Voigt said.

Three bursts of bright light pulsed from the laser; a smell akin to burnt toast filled the room and Dani scrunched up her nose. The doctors called to each other, increased the intensity, and the laser flashed again. Several tendrils were severed from the main body. Dani ignored the thought that she would get to see Malcolm awake soon, tell him what an idiot he was.

The laser fired again, but the Black Mercy contracted and quivered before it sent out a new wave of tendrils deep into his skin. The machines monitoring Malcolm’s vitals began beeping frantically and loudly.

“His heart is seizing!” 

“We almost have it!” Dr. Voigt said.

Malcolm’s body arched off the bed in obvious pain, writhing as the smell of burning flesh filled the room. Tentacles continued growing from the main body, dark patches of blood appearing under his skin and the machines screaming in warning.

“Stop!” Dani screamed, ignoring the warning arm Gil reached in front of her. “Stop it, you’re killing him!”

Dr. Henry attempted to stand in front of her as the laser lost its charge and Malcolm’s body stilled on the table, alarms still screeching.

“We almost had it,” Dr. Voigt said, deflating behind the podium.

“You were killing him!” Dani said. “His heart was failing!”

“Mrs. Powell, we could have restarted it,” Dr. Voigt said.

Her hands shaking, Dani turned, a retort on her tongue before Ainsley spoke.

“Look!” She said, rushing to the bed.

Dani followed her to Malcolm’s bedside. His eyes were open, clouded and unseeing, but blinking against the fluorescent lights. She touched his arm.

“Malcolm?” She asked. “Can you hear me?”

Malcolm’s head turned, ice-blue eyes focusing on Dani while his lips moved, attempted to speak.

“Malcolm?” Ainsley said.

“Dani?”

The heart monitor flat-lined with a loud whine.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning for gaslighting, i think? i have nothing better to do with my time than write this (pls don't tell my profs) but anyway, enjoy!!!

Malcolm got home first that afternoon and he lounged on the couch while he waited for Dani to come home. They hadn’t discussed whether or not Dani officially lived here but she had a drawer and a toothbrush and she had populated the fridge with actual food instead of just sparkling water and Red Vines.

He did not notice that he had fallen asleep until Dani came in, announcing her presence. She hung up her coat and picked up a bottle of red wine.

“How was work?” Malcolm asked.

Dani set the wine on the counter and kissed him. “Good,” she said. “Nice collar earlier.”

“Mmm, thank you,” Malcolm said, still focused on their lips close together.

Dani pulled away and smiled. “Gil got an update from the hospital. James Collins is going to make a full recovery.”

Malcolm shrugged, smiling. His feet tapped happily in his socks. “He’ll need therapy.”

“We all do, don’t we?” Dani said. “I’m going to get ready.”

“You’re going out?” Malcolm asked. He hoped she wasn’t getting drinks with Ainsley again; they shared the worst of his embarrassing stories and used them as blackmail every chance they got.

Dani narrowed her eyes. “We’re having dinner with your mom? And your sister? Did you forget?”

Malcolm blinked and laughed. “I completely forgot,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face.

She snorted and ducked into the bathroom. “We have to be there in an hour,” she called.

He climbed off the couch and let Sunshine out of her cage. She happily flew out and perched on top of his TV while he cleaned out her cage. He refilled her water and gave her more food. He thought about buying her a new toy or trying to teach her something. Ainsley had sent him a video of a parakeet playing fetch with a button and told him he should teach Sunshine how to play fetch.

Dani emerged from the bathroom with a billow of steam, wrapped up in a towel, and began pawing through her drawer. 

“You don’t have to dress up,” Malcolm said, leaning against the stairs and watching her. She still had water droplets clinging to her shoulders.

“Your mom said I looked  _ cozy _ last week,” Dani said.

Malcolm shrugged. “She’s unfamiliar with the concept of jeans,” he said, crossing over to her.

Dani opened the closet and grabbed a dress off a hanger. She examined it and tossed it aside. 

“You don’t have to dress up,” Malcolm reiterated. 

“Your mom thinks Dolce and Gabbana are cheap.”

Malcolm tilted his head. “I mean…”

Dani glared.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “My mother has some very strange ideas about fashion but she thinks you’re great and you don’t have to impress her. She - it’s so cliche - is so happy that I’m happy.”

Dani rolled her eyes. “You bastard,” she mumbled before finally picking something to wear. She dropped her towel and dressed in front of him, turning for him to zip up her dress and pulling her hair out of the way.

Malcolm pressed a kiss to her shoulder as he zipped her dress. 

“You’re just wearing that?” She teased, going back to the bathroom.

“My mother is constantly disappointed in my fashion sense,” Malcolm said, surveying himself in the mirror. It was a simple Tom Ford suit with a notched lapel. 

Dani stepped out of the bathroom, lipstick applied, and she grabbed a pair of shoes. “Are you ready?”

Malcolm nodded and called Sunshine back to her cage. She chirped as he latched the door and he pushed a treat through the bars. 

Dani drove, as ever, and when she climbed out of the car, she studied her warped reflection in the shiny paint of her SUV. Malcolm wrapped an arm around her waist and led her inside. He had lost his embarrassment over his family home a long time ago - with the opulent carpets and the actual portraits of his relatives - but he still felt a twinge of embarrassment with Dani. Her family home was the definition of  _ cozy _ and his was the scene of twenty-three (or more) murders.

Mother and Ainsley met them in the dining room and Mother commented, almost pointedly, about how Dani had brought a  _ corked _ wine. They split the wine between the four of them and sat down to eat. It felt normal. It felt like his father was no longer haunting the house. 

When Ainsley began telling Dani about how Malcolm had once accidentally texted his history teacher instead of his high school girlfriend, he excused himself to the bathroom. It wasn’t his fault that he had transposed two numbers of his girlfriend’s number and found his history teacher instead. He could hear Dani laughing as Ainsley recounted how Mr. Lloyd had told Malcolm he loved him, too, on a Monday morning.

He had hardly dried his hands before his body suddenly lurched forward, his hand reaching up to his chest while his knees began shaking. He leaned heavily against the pedestal sink. He needed an ambulance. The chest pain from before was quadrupled. Hot fire coursed through his body as his chest constricted.

He could not breathe.

He clawed at his tie, undid the first button of his shirt, and attempted to shuffle towards the door, acutely aware that he could not scream for help and his grip on consciousness was dwindling. 

Malcolm’s knees gave out and he fell on his back against the cold tile. The tightness and pain spread down to his hips, up to his neck and his jaw. He could feel something moving, tendrils underneath his skin, and he tried to claw at it with dull nails.

He could not breathe. He could not breathe. He could not fucking breathe.

His body writhed on the floor, arching up and trying to find a position in which he could breathe. His vision was cloudy and darkening around the edges. His hands were useless against his chest.

_ “We almost had it.” _

Malcolm turned in a desperate attempt to reach the door before another wave of pain coursed through him and rendered him useless, lips open in a silent scream.

_ “You’re killing him!” _

He knew that voice.

_ “You were killing him! His heart was failing!” _

He stopped fighting, tried to focus solely on that voice.

_ “Malcolm?” _

He felt weightless for a brief moment before he became aware of a weight on his chest and someone holding his arm.

_ “Malcolm?” _

Everything was fluorescent and bright. He felt heavy. The light faded.

“Dani?”

Malcolm awoke to harsh fluorescent lights and the sound of hushed conversation. His right shoulder ached.

Someone held onto his left hand, squeezing. He turned his head and saw Dani beside his hospital bed, holding his hand. Her face was pale, her lips pressed together. She was upset.

“Malcolm?” She asked, her face breaking into relief.

He was not on the bathroom floor, he realized. He was in a hospital bed, a needle in the back of his right hand. Mother was on his other side with Ainsley and Gil was sat in the corner.

“Hey,” he said, his voice scratchy. He coughed. “What happened?”

Dani stood and sat next to him on the bed, her hip against his. She laid her hand on his chest, which was strangely numb. “You’re at the hospital,” she said. “You were shot while on your stake out.”

Malcolm frowned. “Shot?”

“Yeah,” she said, “by David Bennet. The suspect you and Gil were investigating.”

“No,” Malcolm mumbled. “We - we arrested him. We were at dinner with my Mom.”

Mother scoffed next to him. “Yes, we had plans for dinner,” she said. “Before you got  _ shot _ .”

Dani leaned into him. “It got you in the shoulder,” she said.

Gil stepped over, took Dani’s vacated seat. “You’re lucky to be alive, kid,” he said. “They just had you in surgery for hours. The bullet hit your axillary artery.”

It came back to him in fits and spurts. Gil shouting. Pressing against his shoulder. Sirens.

“You’ve had a hard day,” Mother said, brushing at his hair. “Let’s get you home.”

Malcolm nodded and did not stop to wonder why they would let a gunshot victim leave immediately after waking up from surgery. He was fine, anyway. They had corrected his blood loss and patched him up. All he had to do now was keep the area clean and dry and come back in two weeks to have the stitches removed.

Something was off, he noticed. Ainsley and Mother were wearing each other’s outfits: Ainsley in Mother’s purple blouse and black skirt and Mother in Ainsley’s suit that she had once compared to the carpet at the DMV. Everything was swapped, down to their jewelry.

“Did you two switch outfits?” He asked.

Ainsley frowned. “What are you talking about?”

A sudden flash of pain coursed over his chest and he shut his eyes, his hand resting on the hospital gown. When he opened his eyes, Mother and Ainsley were in the correct outfits.

“Let’s get you home,” Mother said.

Ainsley left to fetch a nurse. Dani kissed his temple. 

“You must be exhausted,” she said.

He was. The nervous energy dissipated from his body.

“We’ll get you home and get some sleep,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

Despite himself, he was not worried.

They went back to Mother’s house once they filled a prescription for fentanyl to help deal with any pain. Gil came with them with JT, who admitted he had never seen Gil so frightened. Malcolm felt terrible for scaring them.

Mother had Louisa refresh his childhood bedroom for him to sleep in. It was cozy and quiet and difficult for him and Dani to maneuver into a comfortable sleeping position in the double bed. Dani laid her head on his unaffected shoulder and peppered kisses on his chest.

“You scared the shit out of me,” she murmured. “Gil called and I could tell something wasn’t right…”

Malcolm wrapped an arm around her shoulder. The moments in his - their - apartment, he must have dreamt them during surgery. “I’m sorry.”

“I thought you were dead,” Dani whispered after a beat. She sounded terrified. “I think you were dead for a minute or two.”

“And leave the best thing that’s ever happened to me?” Malcolm asked, trying desperately to ease the fear in her voice. “No way.”

“You’ll never leave me?”

“Never.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

He had never made a promise like that, one that felt almost irreversible. Dani leaned up and pressed their lips together in a heated kiss that made Malcolm wonder if she had other ideas for the night. Malcolm relaxed into it, cradled the back of her head. They pulled away once they were out of breath, Dani leaning her forehead against his and smiling.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you, too,” Malcolm said.

“Rest,” she said. “You’ve had a long day.”

He nodded and shut his eyes. Dani, perfect as ever, fell asleep on his chest, her breath evening out after a few minutes. He could not get himself to sleep, no matter how evenly he matched his breathing to Dani’s.

He could not shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong. He considered the possibility it was just his anxiety, that nothing could possibly be wrong. He had a detective asleep on his chest, another one in the guest room downstairs, and a Lieutenant somewhere else. He had Dani and he was in his mother’s home. Nothing could hurt him here.

He laid a hand on his chest. Against his shoulder, he could feel Dani’s heartbeat, steady against his skin. Everything was fine. He began to doze.

Malcolm nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized. His hand pressed against his chest and he quieted his breathing. He reached over with his hand, gently pressing his fingers against Dani’s neck. He could feel her heartbeat against his fingers, could hear it if he focused hard enough.

His own heartbeat was missing.

Malcolm did not sleep at all that night. 

He spent hours in the darkness of his childhood bedroom, his hand over his chest, his fingers searching along his throat for a pulse. Logically, he knew that it was impossible. He could not survive without a heartbeat, not for this long. Without oxygenated blood, his muscles and tissues and organs would die. His lungs would not work and his brain would not function. 

Malcolm tried not to panic. His usual response to anxiety was to focus on slowing his heart rate but he could not find it. He did not want to wake Dani but he kept considering sneaking out and driving himself back to the hospital.

Around six, as the sky was beginning to lighten, his chest tightened and he became aware of a familiar fluttering under his ribs. He let his breath out as he counted his pulse, kept track of it. He relaxed and thought about paying a visit to the doctor. It was probably psychosomatic, a manifestation of his anxiety, but it was worth investigating.

After relaxing for an hour, Malcolm got up and went downstairs. There was no point in trying to sleep and he had survived with less rest than that in the past. He found Gil in the kitchen, making a cup of coffee. He frowned when he saw Malcolm awake.

“What are you doing?” Gil asked.

Malcolm shrugged. “I slept quite a bit in surgery, I guess,” he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. 

“How are you feeling?”

He stretched. He could hardly feel the gunshot wound in his shoulder. The fentanyl patch must be working. “Good,” he said.

Gil sighed and sipped his coffee. 

“What are  _ you _ doing up so early?” Malcolm asked.

He chuckled. “Oh, am I being interrogated now?”

Malcolm spread his hands, shrugged. 

Gil sighed. “It just scared me yesterday,” he admitted, voice low. 

He nodded, looked at Gil. “I’m sorry.”

“Kid, it’s not your fault you got shot,” Gil said. “It’s mine. I shouldn't have let you get so close to the suspect.”

“I’ve been shot at before,” he said. “It’s just the first time a bullet has struck.”

Gil’s teeth worried against his lip and he nodded. “There was just so much blood…”

Malcolm hated the look in his eyes, the faraway stare.

“Did you know your heart stopped?” Gil said, meeting Malcolm’s gaze again. “Just for - just for a second. Until they got your blood pressure back up and got that bullet out.”

“They let me go home the same day,” Malcolm said. “I must be fine. I’m not going to die on you.”

Gil grinned. “Good. You want some breakfast?”

“Sure,” Malcolm said. “What did you have in mind?”

“Cereal?” Gil suggested.

Malcolm frowned. In all the years that he had known Gil, he had denounced cereal as a breakfast food. He’d always said breakfast was meant to be hot.

“What?”

“Cereal,” Gil said slowly, chuckling. “Or are you too rich to understand the concept?”

“No, Gil, you hate cereal.”

Gil laughed and reached over, grasping Malcolm’s unaffected shoulder. His heart twinged and his hand reached up. It must be satellite pain from the gunshot wound. Gil’s hand was cold.

“Malcolm, I don’t hate cereal. You must have hit your head.”

His grip tightened painfully and Malcolm reached up, attempted to peel the fingers off his shoulder to no avail. His heart pounded underneath his chest. His vision tunneled out and a sound built, crowding out all the other noise. A low buzz, like static.

Malcolm’s chest twinged and he pitched forward towards the counter. A wet feeling spread from Gil’s hand. It was a thick black fluid, like oil, leaking from his shoulder, onto Gil’s hand, onto the countertop. 

He cried out, a mixture of pain and fear, and the static filled his ears. He couldn’t even hear his own scream. Gil grabbed the front of his shirt, pulled him up. He wore a face-splitting grin with a horrible look in his eyes that reminded Malcolm of Martin Whitly. He pulled Malcolm up close to him, close enough that he could smell his breath.

“You  _ hit your head,  _ Malcolm.”

A debilitating pain coursed through him and Malcolm collapsed, vision going black.

“Malcolm, hurry up, it’s getting cold!”

Malcolm blinked and looked up. Gil was in front of him, carrying two cups of coffee. He was carrying two mugs as well.

“Come on, are you okay?”

He nodded. “I’m fine,” he said mechanically. He shifted his grip on one of the mugs, glanced at the time. An hour had passed since he’d gone into the kitchen. An hour he had lost.

“Let’s go, Dani will be awake soon.”

Malcolm stepped up the stairs and peered into the mugs. His own was black, had been sipped out of, but Dani’s was white with cream. Only cream, no sugar, he knew. 

They parted ways at the top of the stairs and Malcolm wondered for a minute what it meant that Gil was taking his mother coffee in bed. He padded down the hall to his bedroom, found Dani having just woken up.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Coffee in bed?” Dani asked, sitting up and yawning.

Malcolm handed her the mug and she cupped it in her sleep-warm hands and took a sip. “We had plans for dinner last night but I ruined those, so I figured I would bring you coffee in bed. To apologize for frightening you.”

She grinned over the lip of the mug. “Well, it’s perfect,” she said. 

“A truly horrifying amount of cream and no sugar. Not hard.”

Dani leaned over and kissed him, tasting of coffee and sleep. “Thank you.”

His heart twinged, but in a good way.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go!! thank you to everyone who has read and left kudos and comments - if you enjoy, please leave a comment! it means so much. enjoy!

Dani could not focus on anything but Malcolm during the seconds, impossibly long and stretching into eternity, that Malcolm’s heart stopped. The machines whined while the room descended into horrified silence. The world crumbled. Everything stopped. Until Malcolm’s body shuddered and the line on the monitor jumped and his chest expanded.

Doctors rushed into action, shoved all of them out of the room. The door shut in their faces as soon as they were in the hallway. A pleasant nurse, armed with a box of tissues, herded them into the private waiting room.

Jessica sobbed and collapsed against Gil’s chest. Ainsley held onto Dani’s hand and Dani held onto JT’s, even though he protested but did not attempt to remove it. The minutes blurred together into one long string of horror ever since Malcolm had died. 

Twenty minutes passed before Gil and JT left, promised to bring them back coffee and something to eat. Dani wasn’t hungry - wasn’t sure she would ever be capable of hunger - but the promise of coffee was perfect.

“You don’t have to stay,” Jessica said, dabbing at her eyes across from Dani.

Dani had pulled her feet up on the chair, knees against her chest. She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

Ainsley looked at her, touched her shoulder. “You’re sure?”

She nodded. She desperately wanted to see Dr. Henry again with her calm demeanour but at this point, any of them would do. She was exhausted, even worse than when Malcolm was kidnapped at Christmas. 

Ainsley looked at her phone as it buzzed. Dani glanced at the screen -  _ Claremont Psychiatric _ . She sighed and held it up for Jessica. 

Jessica’s eyes filled with tears again. “We’ll have to tell him,” she said in a horrified whisper. 

Ainsley looked at her phone and let it buzz until the screen clicked off. 

“I can do it,” Dani offered. “If… neither of you wants to.”

Jessica shook her head. “That’s too much to ask, Detective P-”

“Please,” she said. “Call me Dani.”

Silence fell over them again. Dani was not sure that she meant it when she offered to tell Martin that his son was dying. She was not sure that Jessica would let her, that she would even be allowed in Claremont if she wasn’t on his visitor’s list. 

“He… He was crying in his sleep yesterday,” Dani admitted to the scuffed linoleum floor.

“What?” Ainsley asked.

“He started crying,” she said, voice stronger. “But the doctor said he had an endorphins rush, so he wasn’t in pain or anything. I just can’t figure out why?”

Jessica half-chuckled. “Probably dreaming of solving murders,” she said.

“Probably dreaming of you,” Ainsley offered.

Dani looked at her. “Me?”

Gil and JT returned with coffee, stepping into the room and peering at cups as they started handing them out.

“You guys are probably his favourite,” Ainsley said. 

Dani pulled her knees closer and hugged her coffee to her chest. It was foolish to assume that Malcolm dreamt only of her. She was a minor character in his life, someone he worked with.

“I called Edrisa,” Gil said. “I told her to come here when she could.”

Dani did not want Edrisa to see Malcolm. She would not wish those images on her worst enemy.

A doctor knocked on the waiting room door and stepped in. He introduced himself as Dr. Singh. Dani did not recognize him from the laser trial.

“I thought you’d have gone home,” he said. “I’m glad I found you.”

“Has something happened?” Ainsley asked. 

“Oh, no, he’s still out like a light,” Dr. Singh said. “But I have good news.”

Dani relaxed, put her feet on the floor and sat up. 

“I have an alien specialist who has been working on tracking the Black Mercy for some time now,” he said. “We still can’t figure out where it’s from, but we know that when it attaches itself to someone, it pumps them full of poison that causes them to be unconscious and it feeds off the serotonin and brain waves of REM sleep.”

Dani shifted. If it weren’t so horrifying, it might be interesting to confirm that aliens were real.

“My specialist has been researching ways of getting it off,” Dr. Singh said.

“There’s a way?” Jessica said. Her voice was full of hope.

“Yes, there’s two. The first is that we let nature run its course: the host dies and the plant moves on.”

Gil scowled. “And the  _ other _ option?”

“Well, the way the Black Mercy operates is actually fairly complex, but as I said, it needs REM brain waves, serotonin, endorphins - all that fun stuff - to survive. It needs the host to stay in a deep sleep and have really nice dreams, so it taps into their memories and whatnot to access their deepest desires. Coupled with the fact that the poison causes vivid dreams, it causes the host to feel like they’re living out their biggest desires.”

Dani wondered what that would look like for him. 

“Really, it’s an airtight defense,” Dr. Singh continued. “The host  _ wants _ to stay in their dream and the Black Mercy can’t be physically removed. However, if the host realizes that they’re dreaming, they could sever the mental connection. If they’re awake and aware of what’s going on, the Black Mercy would have to detach itself. The only issue is that they don’t want to wake up.”

Dani thought about his dreams on a regular basis. Nearly always nightmares. It was comforting, somehow, to know that he was at least having a pleasant dream.

“We were wondering if having familiar objects around might help,” Dr. Singh said. “Things near and dear to him. It has been observed to help coma patients. Something like, a pet or his favourite song or his favourite book.”

“He has a parakeet,” Ainsley offered.

“ _ The Count of Monte Cristo _ ,” JT said.

Dani glanced at him. “He’s got a vintage record player, too,” she said. 

Dr. Singh nodded. “Great,” he said. “The sooner you can get those things here, the better.”

Jessica dabbed at her eyes with her worn tissue. Dani hated the thought of going to Malcolm’s apartment without him there.

“And… the other option?” Ainsley asked.

Dr. Singh shifted on his feet, leaned back against the wall. “Forcing his dreams into nightmares.”

The irony was not lost on Dani. She looked down at her boots and shut her eyes.

“An opioid blocker to stop the endorphins,” Dr. Singh said. “And then once the happiness dies down, we give him a shot of something like adrenaline or maybe even LSD. If it goes perfectly, he will be so scared that he will wake up.”

Dani thought of the night in his apartment when he got drugged. She thought of the terror on his face, the uncontrollable hallucinations. If anything were to work to wake him up, it would be that.

“Why aren’t we doing that now?” She asked, looking up at Dr. Singh. “It seems a lot more effective than - than playing him some music or bringing his bird in.”

Dr. Singh reached and scratched at his beard. “Well, it’s untested and potentially dangerous,” he said. “The plant might react by increasing its poison output to compensate and try to make him happy again. It could end up killing him faster.”

Dani ran a hand through her hair. Even with the coffee in her system, she was more tired than ever.

“We want to try the first option before we risk it,” Dr. Singh said. “But, his vitals aren’t great, and he died earlier… We have him on transfusions for the time being but if we can’t get him out of it by morning, we’ll have to give him the shot.”

Ainsley’s hand found Dani’s and squeezed. 

“Let’s go get his parakeet,” Jessica said, her voice strong and final.

Jessica and Gil searched the Whitly home for anything they thought could potentially rouse Malcolm. Ainsley, JT, and Dani searched his apartment. It felt wrong to be in his space without Malcolm there, like she was intruding upon something private.

Dani got Sunshine into her fancy carrying cage, fed her bird treats, and set it near the window while JT attempted to pack his record player. Ainsley perused his book shelf. 

She stood in front of his collection of weapons. They wouldn’t do much good with Malcolm asleep, even if they could get them into the hospital at all. Ainsley muttered about cases and ducked upstairs to his office. 

“Do you think a perfume would help?” JT asked, picking up a bottle of cologne from the bathroom. 

Dani shrugged. “The sense of smell is linked with memory,” she said. Malcolm had told her that. 

JT pocketed the bottle. 

She leaned against his couch, peering at the artwork on his walls. He had told her the name of the artist, too, but she couldn’t remember. 

“Something is going to work, Dani,” JT said. 

She looked at him, nodded. “I know.”

“Maybe we just need to present a new case for him.”

Dani smiled. She found his phone and clicked it on. Her missed calls showed at the top of the screen alongside three missed calls from Claremont. Instead of listening to her own voicemails, she swiped through his photos. There was a photo of her that she didn’t know he had taken at the Taylor wedding, in the red dress that he had bought for her. It was after they had arrested Isabella when she was talking with another officer, laughing. 

JT picked up the record player. “I’m taking this to the car,” he said.

Dani pocketed Malcolm’s phone and knelt down to peer at his records. Classical music, jazz, instrumentals. She briefly considered teasing him about his taste in music. 

Ainsley came downstairs with newspaper clippings about his cases. “Ready to go?”

Dani picked a few of the well-worn records off the shelf and stood back up. “I’ve been thinking…”

Ainsley nodded.

“The doctor said that he was having a really good dream,” she said, shifting on her feet and looking down at the hardwood under her boots. “I don’t think he would be dreaming of your dad.”

“You’re right,” Ainsley said. 

Dani looked up.

“Maybe if he heard dad’s voice…”

“He would wake up.”

Ainsley nodded. “Let’s go to Claremont,” she said, picking up Sunshine’s carrier and walking out of his apartment.

Dani followed her. “What are we going to tell him?” She asked.

“Malcolm’s in a coma,” she said. 

She had not meant for them to go to Claremont but she had offered to tell Martin that Malcolm was dying earlier. They would be in and out, though they would have to endure the emotional response that Martin would undoubtedly perform when they broke the news about Malcolm to him. 

JT stayed in the car with Sunshine when they parked at Claremont. Dani could tell that he wasn’t thrilled with the idea. She hated the thought of speaking to Martin Whitly, a man who could read and dissect her into perfect little pieces, but she kept thinking of Malcolm. At no time had she ever thought Martin might be good for his health.

His cell was, as ever, beautifully decorated. Dani’s stomach flopped when she realized the plush rug on his floor had the same colour scheme as the rug by Malcolm’s bed. Ainsley approached the red line on the floor with her chin high and her arms at her sides whereas Dani folded her arms over her chest, trying to make herself unnoticeable.

“Ah, Ainsley,” Martin said, his hands chained to his belt. “And Detective Powell. What a lovely surprise.”

Dani looked to Ainsley. She did not know how to start this conversation.

“We need your help,” Ainsley said.

“That’s usually more your brother’s thing,” Martin said, grinning. “The last time you asked for my help - well… that ended with your brother in the hospital.”

Dani shut her eyes against the memory of Malcolm after John Watkins had kidnapped him. Beaten and stabbed and broken in so many places. Somehow, it paled in comparison to what was happening now.

“Malcolm is in a coma,” Ainsley said. “And we…”

Dani glanced at her and noticed her hands were shaking. She took a deep breath.

Martin’s grin faltered. “A head injury?”

“No,” Dani said. “Something else. We need you to call and talk to him. The doctors think it could help him wake up.”

“Did he attempt suicide again?” 

She took a deep breath.  _ Again _ . “No,” she said.

Martin cut her off before she could continue. “Did - did he drown? There’s only so many reasons for a healthy young man to be in a coma.” He laughed uncomfortably. “A - a stroke?”

“Dr. Whitly…” she said.

“My specialty was always the heart and lungs, of course, but I know a thing or two about comas, and I know that hearing my voice won’t do a thing!” His voice ratcheted up as he spoke. It reminded Dani of Ainsley’s interview, when she accused him of being a terrible father.

Ainsley looked him in the eye. “Call in an hour,” she said in a measured voice. 

Martin was breathing heavily, his jaw clenched and his eyes wild. He paced across the carpet, soft, laceless slippers quietly slapping the rug. “Tell me what’s wrong with my boy.”

“Without familiar voices and objects, the doctors are worried Malcolm could die,” Dani said. She knew that she hedged around the subject, that the word  _ die _ hung between them.

He stopped. He stared at her. She tried to hold his gaze. “Die,” he repeated.

Dani nodded. It didn’t feel real to say it. 

“Fine,” he said. 

Ainsley said a quick thank you and left the cell with Dani. They only made it a few paces down the hallway before Ainsley stopped and pulled Dani into a tight hug, her face crumbling as she began to cry.

Dani held her gingerly, blinking back her own tears. “He’s going to be okay,” she said, in the way she was trained to talk to families about their traumatized loved ones.

“He’s dying,” Ainsley said with a particularly heartbreaking sob.

Dani tensed her grip on Ainsley. “He’s a fighter,” she said. “He’ll get through this.”

But Malcolm had fought so much, for so long. Dani wasn’t sure how much fight he had left. In spite of herself, she believed her own words.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> somehow this work also became a bit of Jessica/Gil??? that wasn't initially planned but honestly, Mom and Dad. Enjoy!!!

They arrived at the hospital with Sunshine chirping in her cage and his record player and assorted records. Dani handed over Malcolm’s phone as well. 

“Maybe his text tone will wake him up,” Dr. Singh joked.

None of them laughed.

Dr. Singh opened his phone and searched through the photos. “That’s a nice photo of you,” he said, looking at Dani.

She shrugged. “It’s from a case,” she said, looking down at the floor. JT’s gaze weighed heavily on her.

“Are you two dating?” He asked, innocently curious. 

“Maybe in his dreams,” Dani mumbled. 

They took all their found objects into Malcolm’s room. He was as asleep as ever, tendrils under his skin. The sheets under him were soaked with blood. They couldn’t change them without getting too near to the mass.

They had Sunshine chirp. Jessica read some passages from his favourite books, ones he had treasured since he was young. Gil fumbled through turning on his record player and Dani flinched when it played the song they’d danced to the night he’d gotten high. About halfway through, Ainsley’s phone rang. Without a word, she answered the call from Claremont Psychiatric and put it on speaker phone.

Jessica looked ready to kill when Martin’s voice echoed through the room. He rambled for ten minutes and the doctors kept close watch on Malcolm. Dani swore she saw his hand twitch, but she did not want to get anyone’s hopes up.

He remained asleep. 

On the advice of the doctors, they went home. Jessica suggested they convene in her house - there was plenty of space for all of them - and Dani could not imagine going home. They brought Sunshine home, but left the record player and the books in case they helped somewhat overnight. 

Dani showered in their bathroom with gilded mirrors and marble countertops. The maid had laid out fresh soap and the softest towel she could ever imagine and Ainsley had lent her something to sleep in. When she had finished showering, she found that the maid had taken her clothes away to wash them, leaving her phone, wallet and keys sitting on the counter beside the sink.

She was given Malcolm’s bedroom to sleep in. JT got the guest room, Ainsley had her own room, and Dani imagined that Gil would sleep with Jessica. She wondered if there was something going on between them with their lingering touches and shared smiles.

Dani padded downstairs, awkward in Ainsley’s clothes, and found Jessica and Ainsley sitting together on the couch, wrapped up in each other. Jessica immediately reached her arm out and beckoned for Dani. She hesitated by the door, an excuse ready on her tongue that she was just going to get a glass of water, but instead she stepped over and sat down on Jessica’s other side. 

“Thank you for being here,” Jessica whispered.

Dani nodded. “He’s my friend,” she said.

She did not want to think about the connotations of that word in regards to Malcolm, how he hadn’t had friends for so long and how excited he had sounded at the mention of them being friends.

“I’m sorry I interrupted,” Dani mumbled. 

Jessica’s grip tightened before Dani could pull away. She shut her eyes and leaned into Jessica, trying to offer any comfort.

“Tomorrow it could be over,” Jessica said quietly. 

“Do you think he’s going to die?” Ainsley asked.

Dani shook her head. “Bright? No way,” she said, her voice shaking. “Do you?”

Ainsley looked away, at the pictures on the mantle. “I don’t know.”

“Stop it, both of you,” Jessica said. “Whatever happens tomorrow, we will face it together.”

Their cuddle session soon broke up and Dani felt more prepared to deal with being in Malcolm’s bedroom. She gingerly sat on his bed and laid down carefully. Although Jessica’s warmth had prepared her for tomorrow, it did nothing to prepare her for breathing in Malcolm’s scent on the sheets.

Malcolm blinked.

He was at the foot of the stairs, holding a breakfast tray with dirty dishes - crumbs from croissants, sticky remnants of jam in little dishes, smears of egg yolk and some dregs of coffee left in two mugs. His sweatpants and old t-shirt combination was replaced with a comfortable sweater and slacks. 

He had no idea how he had gotten there.

He walked into the kitchen with the tray and found Gil and Dani doing the dishes. Everything was fine - the kitchen was just as it had always been at home, even if it wasn’t Louisa doing dishes. Something was still off. 

“Are you okay?” Dani asked, drying off her hands and turning to face him. 

Malcolm set the tray down beside the sink and nodded. “I’m fine,” he said, as his chest twinged again. He really had to see a doctor.

Dani stepped over to him and kissed him. She wore glasses.

“What’s with the glasses?” Malcolm asked.

Gil turned and looked at him. “What are you talking about?” He asked as he dunked the new dishes into the sudsy water.

“Dani is wearing glasses,” Malcolm said.

Dani frowned. “I don’t wear glasses,” she said. “Are you feeling okay?”

Malcolm laid a hand on his chest - it kept aching. “Yeah…”

Dani dried the last coffee mug and replaced it in the cupboard. The sink was drained and clean and Gil stood against the counter. They could not have done dishes that quickly.

“I’ll… I’ll be right back,” he said. It was probably just the gunshot wound and satellite pain - maybe some confusion from hitting his head as he fell. Nothing a splash of water on his face couldn’t fix.

He locked the bathroom door and pulled his sweater over his head and peered in the mirror. The gauze from the gunshot wound in his shoulder was clean. He quickly washed his hands before he peeled the pad off and realized, horrified, that the wound was gone. The skin was pristine. There was no scar left behind. 

Instead, over his heart is a black spot, like a bruise the size of his hand. It had thin black tendrils weaving over his chest, up his neck, down to his stomach. Carefully, he reached up with his right hand and prodded it - immediately regretted touching it. He keeled over the sink and gripped it with both hands as pain coursed through his chest and his vision went white.

Malcolm took a deep breath and slid down to the floor, trying to contain his whimper of panic. What the fuck was happening to him? He wondered if he was literally falling apart. His chest erupted in a crawling sensation, like there was something under his skin, and he clawed at it, crying out as he attempted to scratch it out, kill it, anything.

“Get out, get the fuck out,” he mumbled, his nails gaining no purchase on his skin. He could not see the thing under his skin, but he could feel it, pushing and squirming deeper and deeper. He had to get it out.

Someone banged on the door and he startled.

“Malcolm!” 

_ Dani _ .

He scrambled to his feet, pulled his sweater back over his head. Her voice was panicked. 

“Yeah?”

“Your father escaped.”

Malcolm nearly slammed the door into his face trying to get it open. Dani stood in front of the door, arms folded over her chest, her teeth worrying at her lip. She handed him his phone and, with shaking hands, he took it.

“Hello?”

“My boy!” Martin Whitly’s voice echoed over the phone.

He clenched his free hand. “What do you want?”

“Well, I thought I would come spend some quality time with my family! The only problem is that there was a pesky cop standing in my way.”

_ Gil _ . 

“What did you do?” Malcolm could not keep his voice from shaking. He had just seen Gil downstairs - he couldn’t be far. 

Dani rested a hand on his shoulder. 

“I figured I needed something to keep you from bringing any of your other friends,” Martin said. “Collateral, if you will.”

His hand shook. 

“Come spend some time with me and I will make sure you get Gil back in one piece,” Martin said. 

“Fine.”

“I’m at the cabin.”

The line went dead with a burst of static and Malcolm looked at Dani.

“You’re not going alone,” she said immediately.

He walked around her to his bedroom, grabbed a duffel bag and began stuffing clothes in. 

“Malcolm!” She said.

“If you come with me, he’ll kill Gil,” Malcolm said. 

“We went to that cabin,” Dani argued. “It’s remote. He’ll leave Gil to die of exposure.”

Malcolm sighed. “Fine. But you wait for Gil and go once you have him, okay?”

“He’ll kill you.”

“No,” Malcolm said. “I’m the one thing he treasures most.”

Dani was quiet behind him while he stuffed his meds into the duffel bag. 

“Malcolm!” Dani shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

He zipped his bag up and ran to the stairs, nearly tripping over his own feet. He grabbed himself on the railing. 

“We have to go!”

Malcolm wondered how Dani had gotten downstairs so quickly. He wondered where Mother was, where Ainsley was. He hoped they were safe. 

He started down the stairs and stepped in something wet and slimy and thick, slipped, and barely caught himself. 

“Malcolm, hurry up!” Dani said. He had never heard her so frantic.

He looked back at what he had slipped in and it was the same black sludge from Gil’s hand earlier. “What the fuck,” he mumbled. “Dani, what’s going on?”

Dani’s grip on his hand tightened considerably. He hadn’t even noticed that they were holding hands. It only got worse, tighter, and he attempted to wrest out of her grip before she broke his hand.

“Dani?” He said, his bones creaking.

Dani let go of his hand and he pulled it to his chest. The stairs were moving, he realized, as Dani stepped back, undulating like the ocean. The steps above him splintered, black sludge oozing out. Malcolm scrambled to his feet but the wood beneath his feet was broken, hemorrhaging out the same black, oily slime. He didn’t want to slip again - the splinters looked big and sharp enough to hurt him.

A noise built slowly behind the walls. The wood creaked and Malcolm could only think stupidly about how historical the house was. He watched in horror as the wood broke, pictures and portraits drowning in the wave of black liquid that crashed out. The noise was deafening. He watched in horror as Dani stood still, did not notice the sludge that crested and fell over her. 

There was sludge everywhere, all over the walls, the stairs, the hardwood floors. He could hardly keep his grip on the banister.

Dani opened her mouth, her eyes unfocused as they rolled back in her head. The sound of static picked up and Malcolm clapped his hands over his ears. Something slithered out of the fissures in the walls, thin vines of a plant material, that reached up and encircled his legs, up his body, around his torso. 

The feeling of something  _ under _ his skin returned full force and Malcolm screamed, attempting once again to claw at his chest. He stood, tried to step away, and lost his footing. He scrambled uselessly in the air, trying to grab onto something. The plant did nothing to support him.

Malcolm fell into a vast, empty space of screaming static.

His vision went white.

He woke up standing outside Dani’s SUV, his hand on the handle of the passenger door and his chest twinging painfully. The snow had shrivelled into grey slush by the side of the road. There were dark, impossibly black clouds looming in the horizon.

“Malcolm! Hurry!” 

Dani shouted at him from inside the SUV. His duffel bag was in the backseat. His hands shook and he stepped away from the car. He wanted to go back inside, find Ainsley and Mother, make sure they were safe.

“Malcolm, we have to go get Gil!” Dani said. 

_ Gil _ . 

“No,” Malcolm said. “No, you’re not her.”

“What are you talking about?” Dani asked.

“You aren’t Dani!” He shouted.

“Malcolm, we don’t have time for this,” she said. “Gil is in trouble. Martin has already killed JT. We have to go.”

His hands shook as he opened the car door. “JT?” He asked.

Dani nodded. She looked like she’d been crying and she reached over, grabbed his wrist. Malcolm flinched, expected to hear his bones creaking and the grip to be painful, but it was gentle, tender. It quelled the shaking of his hand.

“Dani, what’s going on?” He whispered, meeting her eyes.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But you could ruin it all.”

He blinked. “What?”

“We need to be careful.”

Malcolm wasn’t sure if she was talking about their relationship or their task of rescuing Gil. He climbed into the car, shut the door behind him. 

“I need you to listen,” Dani said, turning to him. “You need to promise me. My life depends on it.”

Malcolm shook his head at the thought of Dani getting hurt, his heart pounding. His chest ached at the thought of her not being here. “Of course,” he said, “anything.”

Dani leaned over and pressed their lips together, her hands cupping Malcolm’s face. Her hands were warm, her lips were soft, and Malcolm could not help but melt into it. She kissed him deeply, their mouths open against each other, and he was lightheaded. Dani pulled away and pressed a few pecks to his lips, gripping his face and looking him in the eye.

“No matter what happens, you can’t wake up,” Dani said.

Malcolm’s brows knit together. “What?”

“You can’t leave me,” Dani said, desperate. “Promise me.”

“I would never leave you,” he said.

She brushed a lock of hair out of his face. She smiled too wide to be natural, showing off too many teeth - adults had anywhere between twenty-eight and thirty-two but there were more than that crowding her mouth. “Is that a promise?” 

Malcolm nodded and tried a reassuring smile. “I promise.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter contains some gore and lots of emotions! be aware! thank you for reading and leaving comments, y'all are my faves!

In the morning, JT woke Dani up. He brought her clothes, freshly laundered, and gave her time to get dressed before they all went downstairs together. There was a breakfast spread on the table, plates of eggs and bacon and toast. Jessica sat with an empty plate and a full glass of whisky while Ainsley tore a slice of toast into small pieces and dropped them on her plate.

They sat at the table and picked at food silently. Dani knew she would not survive the day on an empty stomach but all she wanted was Malcolm sitting across from her. After half an hour, Jessica stood, her glass empty, and called her chauffeur. 

The people at the front desk refused to admit that Malcolm Bright was a patient at their hospital until Gil pulled his badge out. Then the nurses paged Dr. Singh, who came down to collect them. Dani hated that he looked much less peppy.

He led them to an office and collected enough chairs so they could all sit. He sat down on the other side of the desk, folding his hands in front of him on the table. 

“Nostalgia therapy was unsuccessful,” Dr. Singh said.

JT leaned forward. “So, you gave him the opioid blockers and shit, right?”

Dr. Singh nodded. He did not smile and his serious face terrified Dani. “Yes, we began nightmare treatment,” he said. “We administered opioid blockers and a controlled dose of LSD.”

“And?” Ainsley asked.

Dr. Singh swallowed. “It should be working.”

Dani dug her nails into her palms and tried to remember Malcolm when he was high - tried to distance herself from the conversation.

“But we were right about the Black Mercy,” he continued. “It’s doing everything it can to keep him asleep. It quadrupled its poison output in the last few hours.”

She looked at him, the bags under his eyes. He looked legitimately sorry to be saying it.

“His body is starting to shut down,” he said. “And the Black Mercy won’t let us close enough to physically remove it.”

_ No _ .

“At this point, we’re just trying to make him comfortable. We’re out of time.”

“How long does he have?” Gil asked.

“At the rate he’s going, he’s got two hours. Maybe three.”

Dani felt like the floor had fallen out from underneath her. Her breath hitched.

“There’s nothing you can do?” Jessica asked. Her voice was thick with tears.

Dr. Singh shook his head. “Not with the amount of time we have left. There’s no way to remove the plant without killing him instantly or putting everyone else at risk.” He cleared his throat and removed his glasses. “I’m really, really sorry. We did everything we could.”

Dani listed the times she thought she had lost Malcolm before. Nico Stavros’ apartment exploding. Carter Berkhead nearly administering a paralytic agent. The snake bite. Being stuck in a cell with Martin Whitly while Claremont was under lockdown. 

“Can we see him?” Gil asked.

Dani looked away. She focused on the fake potted plant in the corner, obviously plastic.

“Of course,” Dr. Singh said. “We can arrange that for you.”

“Alone?” Gil asked.

“Come with me,” Dr. Singh said, standing. 

The door shut behind them. Jessica and Ainsley dissolved into quiet tears and Dani stood, knocking over the chair behind her with a clatter. 

“I have to go,” she mumbled.

“Dani,” JT said.

She moved through the halls of the hospital towards the door and crashed through them. She could hear JT behind her. Once she was outside, in the biting New York air, she broke into a sprint, across First Avenue and up East 27th to the park. She heard JT shout her name but she didn’t stop until her boot slipped on mud and she crashed down into the dirt.

The sounds of New York City surrounded her as she put her head in her hands, covered her eyes, and let out an anguished sob.

JT knelt beside her, touched her shoulder. “Are you hurt?” He asked.

She shook her head and leaned into him, sobbing. JT wrapped his arms around her and rubbed rhythmic circles into her back. Dani leaned into him, shaking and crying.

“Dani,” JT said. “Dani, you know Bright. You know he won’t go down without a fight. There’s still a chance.”

She shook her head, gently hit against his chest with her fist like a toddler having a tantrum. “He’s not going to wake up,” she said. She was hardly crying anymore, just sobbing and whimpering.

Dani fisted her hand in the fabric of JT’s shirt. It took her a minute to realize that he was crying, too.

“Dani,” he said, “there’s only a few hours left. And we can’t spend it out here.”

She shook her head and buried her face in his chest. 

“We have to - we have to say goodbye, okay?”

It triggered a fresh wave of tears. “No,” she said. “I can’t do this.”

“You have to,” JT said. She tried to focus on his voice, deep and quiet and hard with emotion. 

“No, I can’t,” she sobbed, pulling away just enough to look JT in the eye. She had seen him cry before, but not like this. Not like they were losing everything. “I can’t do it - I love him.”

“Dani, I know,” he said. “We all love that crazy bastard.”

It was raining on them and Dani could feel mud soaking into her jeans. She shook her head. “No, no, not like that,” she said. “I - I  _ love  _ him, JT. And now I’ll never get to tell him because he’s fucking dying.”

JT looked away, let his breath out in a shaky stream. “Do you mean it?”

“What? Of course I fucking mean it.”

“No, do you mean it, or are you only saying it because he’s dying?”

Dani looked away. People passed through the park, going on with their lives. “I mean it,” she said, stronger than she felt. 

“Then you gotta tell him,” JT said, squeezing her shoulders. “I think it’s all he’s ever wanted to hear.”

She collapsed against his chest again, sobbing freely.

“Can you do that?”

She nodded.

“Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

She stood on shaky legs. She had mud splattered on her shirt and her pants were wet, but that was the least of her worries. JT kept an arm over her shoulder as they walked into the hospital, up to the private waiting room. Ainsley immediately jumped up and steered Dani to the bathroom.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

Dani washed her hands free of mud and she met Ainsley’s eye in the mirror. “God, no,” she mumbled.

Ainsley had a fist of paper towels and she dabbed mud off Dani’s sweater. “I know. I’m sorry.”

She dried off her hands and tried not to feel embarrassed about Ainsley scraping mud off her jeans.

“I think that’s the best I can do,” she said, stepping away and surveying her work. “It’s not bad.”

Dani shook her head. “It works,” she mumbled.

Ainsley wrapped Dani up in a tight hug, nearly making Dani cry again. Her eyes hurt from crying so much. “I know you love him,” she whispered. 

Her grip tightened. She couldn’t stop thinking that Malcolm felt the same, that they were both too stubborn to admit it, that she had lost her only chance to tell him because now he was dying.

“I’m not going to let this happen,” Ainsley whispered.

They returned to the waiting room. Gil, JT and Jessica sat together silently. Gil was pale, stared straight ahead, barely seemed to be holding onto Jessica’s hand. Ainsley sat and snuggled into Jessica’s other side, her hand coming up to gently touch her daughter’s hair.

Dr. Henry smiled weakly. “It is good to see you,” she said. “Lieutenant Arroyo is done if anyone else would like to visit him.”

Dani stuffed her hands in her coat. “How’d he look?” She asked.

Gil shook his head. Dani could not remember seeing him so defeated, not even when Malcolm was kidnapped.

“Would you like a moment alone with him?” Dr. Henry asked.

Dani nodded. 

“Come with me,” she said. “You will need a key to get in.”

Dr. Henry led her down the hall to Malcolm’s room and she stopped outside his door. She pulled out her key card and hesitated.

“I must warn you,” she said, “it is very disturbing.”

Dani nodded. She had seen some nasty things with the NYPD.

“He is bleeding quite a bit, he has the LSD in his system… Detective Powell, it is nightmare fuel.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said. She wasn’t sure she would be, though. Seeing Malcolm after Watkins kidnapped him was enough to give her nightmares for a week. 

Dr. Henry nodded and swiped her key card. She pulled open the door for Dani. “If you need anything, I’ll be right outside,” she said.

Dani nodded, thanked her, and stepped inside. The door shut behind her and she tried to steel herself, reminding herself of all the things she had seen at crime scenes. Nothing prepared her for seeing Malcolm under the incubator, though.

His entire body was pale and covered in a sheen of sweat. Faint tremors ran through his body, rattling the bed, like his hand tremor had consumed his whole body. The Black Mercy had completely enveloped his chest in a network of tendrils that pulsed and quivered with every laboured breath Malcolm took. The ends of the cannula in his nose were caked in blood, which collected on his upper lip, and blood dripped from his ears, collecting in his hair and on the pillow behind his head.

His fists were clenched at his side, knuckles white, and his face was pulled into a pained grimace, brows pulled together as he writhed on the bed.

Dani stepped closer, laid her hands on the glass cage and leaned her forehead against it. This was as close as she was going to get. Her breath fogged against the glass.

“Malcolm,” she whispered. She hadn’t even known him for a year, but it felt like an eternity. “How many times have you almost died, and now, this?”

She could only think of her dad, frail and small on a bed just like this one. She thought about the things she said to him but it was different - he had heard them all before. Malcolm had never heard her say this. And he never would.

“I guess… I guess this is it, huh?” 

She wanted to get closer to him, touch him, but the gloves were removed from the incubator. There was too much plant matter on his body. To reach in would be to get too close.

“You can’t even die normally,” she said. “Getting shot or getting sick. And it sucks because you would know how to fix this.”

If the roles were reversed, if she was the one laying with an alien plant on her chest, he would have found a solution by now. He would have fixed it.

“Do you even know you’re dying?” She asked. He certainly looked like he was dying, shaking and sweating and bleeding on the table. 

Dani glanced at her phone. She had already wasted an hour crying in the park and cleaning up with Ainsley in the bathroom. 

“You can’t just leave,” she said. “What - what are we supposed to do without you? Without your stupid profiles. We still haven’t caught the guy killing construction workers and that’s because we don’t have you.”

She thought it might help. He might sit up and recite his profile but the only thing that happened was that his right hand twitched with a particularly violent tremor. 

“You - you’re my best friend, Malcolm,” Dani mumbled. It felt stupid to say. “I need you around.”

She swatted at her eyes and glanced at the monitors, the IV bag, the blood transfusion. She wondered if any of it helped.

“Malcolm,” she choked. “Malcolm Bright, you can’t die.” She slammed her fist down on the incubator. “You can’t die! Wake up! You can’t die because…”

She slumped against the glass, energy gone in a breath. She hated the look on his face, the pained grimace. She hated that she would never learn how his lips felt against hers.

“Because I haven’t told you that I love you yet.”

She covered her mouth with her hand as she sobbed. The door behind her beeped and opened.

“Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Dr. Singh said. “Dr. Voigt and I have to begin preparations.”

Dani stood up, attempted to collect herself. She wiped the tears off her face with her sleeves. “Preparations?”

Dr. Singh shifted uncomfortably. “For when he dies.”

She nodded, gripped the case one more time before she stepped away.

“We must have the proper containment in place for when he passes. The last thing we need is for the plant to attach to anyone else.”

“Can we be here? When he dies?” Dani asked. She remembered running out of the room when her father weakened, abandoning him in his last moments. She wouldn’t do that this time.

Dr. Singh nodded. “Absolutely. Anything else?”

“Can I touch him?” She asked. His hands were clear. She could hold one and try to stop the shaking.

“Detective, I don’t know if that would be a good idea. It could be really dangerous.”

“Please? I just… I need to.”

Dr. Singh nodded. “I’ll see to it that you can.”

She exited the room and settled back into the waiting room. The clock on the wall ticked too loud.

Only two hours left.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is probably my favourite chapter! writing it was a wonderful treat. brief warning for violence, gore, and general nastiness.

Dani sped through the unusually empty streets of New York. She was a cop and someone they loved was in danger, but at this speed, crashing and dying before they could rescue Gil seemed to be a distinct possibility. They left the city for rural highways. His chest ached with anxiety - or was it the black bruise he had seen there earlier?

She made a sharp turn and Malcolm slammed against the door. He glanced in the rearview mirror. The horizon behind them was static, a thousand black and white pixels, instead of the clouds he had seen earlier.

Dani turned off the highway and the road transitioned from concrete to gravel and then to dirt. Malcolm’s head spun. He remembered this road.

_ Ten years old and in the backseat of Dad’s station wagon. He was playing with a knife, the one Dad had bought for him. The car bumped along the road and Malcolm was glad that he was older and he didn’t get car sick anymore.  _

_ It was evening and Dad promised they were going to have fun at the cabin with his friend, who sat in the front seat beside him. The radio was off - they couldn’t get a good signal out here. _

_ Behind him in the trunk, there was a low moan. He scrambled up on his knees; this car did not have seatbelts in the backseat. He peered over the back and saw her, under a thick wool blanket, chains on her wrists. _

_ The car stopped and Malcolm held onto the backseat. She was blonde and she was pretty and there was something wrong. _

_ The driver’s side door opened and Dad opened the back door closest to Malcolm. He looked at him. _

_ “Dad, there’s something wrong,” he said. _

_ Dad nodded and held a cloth in his hands. He reached for Malcolm and he scooted closer.  _

_ “Are we at the cabin?” _

_ Dad pulled him into a hug and held the cloth over his mouth. Chemical. Sweet.  _

He stood outside the cabin. It was made of dark wood. There were stairs with chipped white paint leading up to the front door. Dani was parked somewhere out of sight, waiting for Gil. 

Malcolm took a deep breath. It started to rain. Big, black, oily drops fell onto his shoulders as he stepped up the stairs, steadying his hand on the rough surface of the railing. He had to save Gil.

He knocked on the door. 

“It’s open!” 

He opened the door. Martin stood in front of him in his red sweater. 

“My boy! You joined us!”

“Where’s Gil?” Malcolm asked.

“You already forgot?” Martin asked, grinning.

His hands shook as Martin stepped aside. Gil was strapped to the chair with zip ties, digging into his flesh. His eyes were glassy and unseeing. There was a bloody red line over his throat, blood spilled onto his sweater.

Malcolm screamed.

“You did this, Malcolm,” Martin said. 

He dropped the knife in his hand. His hands were covered in blood. Gil’s blood.

“Psycho. Murderer.”

He shook his head. Martin’s words echoed off the walls.

“You are just like your father.”

Fear and guilt and horror pooled in his stomach. He stumbled back, nearly began to cry, when his vision wiped and static overtook with a painful pressure inside his skull. He grabbed at his head, aware of the blood on his hands, and it felt as though someone had stabbed him in the chest. 

Malcolm came back. Gil was no longer sitting in the chair and Martin had his arms wrapped around him.

“I am so glad you’re here to spend some quality time with me,” Martin said.

It was like the hugs from his childhood, warm and comforting and Malcolm could not help but melt into it.

“I’m going to get our things out of the car, you stay here.”

Malcolm nodded and stepped closer to the fireplace. The woods were silent. He wondered idly where the birds were.

He heard the roar of an engine and he looked out the window. Dani’s SUV raced across the grass, off the makeshift dirt road, and Malcolm watched. She was driving towards the water. He banged his hand against the glass of the window and tried to scream. All that came out was a vaguely mechanical whine.

The car drove into the water. Filled up. Sank. Dani strapped into the driver’s seat, hair floating in the water. Gone.

He brought his phone out of his pocket.  _ No service _ . 

He raced through the house in search of a landline. The cabin was old, it was bound to have a phone somewhere.

“Why can’t you save me? Why don’t you love me?” Dani’s voice echoed through his head.

He opened his mouth to scream with enough force that his chest hurt and he doubled over. It was worse than being stabbed. There was something grabbing at his heart.

A gust of wind slammed a sheet of black rain against the window, obscuring his vision of the outside world. He ran to the door - he could still save her. He wasn’t a great swimmer but he had to try. 

If they were near the river, there was bound to be some kind of flotation device.

The door was locked. Malcolm slammed his full weight against it, cried out the same static sound from before. 

He tried to search his memory for exits from this cabin. He ran downstairs, nearly tripped, and found the ground floor exit. She was drowning, she was dying, and he needed to get to her, even if just to bury her body. He nearly sobbed when he opened the door.

Malcolm stepped into his family home, the basement. Dad’s hobby room. He turned and found a cold, concrete wall behind him. 

He took a deep breath and stepped further into the basement. How the basement could be so dark and gloomy while the rest of the house was beautifully lit was an enigma. 

“Malcolm.”

He spun around.

JT stood behind him, grinning. “Are you okay?”

Malcolm opened his mouth, but he knew he couldn’t speak. The only noise he could make was the mechanical whine, like a machine at a hospital. He tried to mimic a window, tried to show through gestures that Dani was in trouble, like a horribly fucked up game of charades.

JT laughed. “What is it?” He asked in the same tone he would use for a dog. “What is it, boy?”

He shook his head.

JT stepped closer and pinched his cheek. “Cat got your tongue, psycho?”

Malcolm stumbled away, out of his reach. This was not JT. He turned and he was face to face with her, the girl in the box. Her lips were blue, her hair was wet.

“Find me,” she whispered. 

He was between the two of them and he doubled over, gripping at his hair. He hated the gaps in his memory that were happening more frequently, but he wanted another one, just to escape. 

Malcolm stood up again. It was silent. They were gone.

He let his breath out. He had to escape. He had to find Dani. He walked along the hallway to Dad’s hobby room. His drawings of human osteology were pinned to the walls. A figure of the human heart, the cardiopulmonary system. As he looked at them, they seemed to multiply, to box him in further to the room.

Malcolm collapsed against the wall and slid down, breathing heavily. His heart was racing and he put his fingers against his neck to measure his pulse. Anxiety attack or physical exertion aside, his heart rate was too high. It was not sustainable. He would go into cardiac arrest.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. Mother would come downstairs and take him to the hospital. Maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe it was all coming to an end. He clicked his phone on and for a minute, he was met with his phone background, a picture of Dani, before the screen switched over to static. He threw it, watched it crack into pieces as it ricocheted off the door.

The door.

He hadn’t seen that door.

Malcolm clambered to his feet and walked over to the door. He wondered where this one would take him, if he would end up in his apartment this time. He laid his hand against it; it was just a door. He took a deep breath and pushed it open.

It was the room where Watkins had him. There was his blood on the floor, dried to brown after months. There was the anchor in the floor he had been chained to.

“Creepy, isn’t it?”

Ainsley was beside him. She had a nasty gash on her forehead, bleeding onto her face. She smirked at him.

“You can speak, you know,” she said. “You’re allowed.”

“I can?” He squeaked. At least his voice wasn’t gone, like when he was ten years old.

Ainsley stepped into the center of the room, spinning and pirouetting. “Of course. I mean, this is all in your head. You can do whatever you want.”

Malcolm frowned. “How do I get out?”

She shrugged. The blood running down her face was black. The wound on her head pulsed and quivered. “Getting out of here would be a good start.”

“And go outside? But there was all that black shit.”

Ainsley beamed. “Aw, you’re really losing it, bro.”

Malcolm’s hands shook at his sides. She was never like this. She had climbed into his bed when she was five and his night terrors started.

_ Psycho. Freak. Killer. _

“Dani is here somewhere,” Ainsley said.

“What? She’s okay?” Malcolm asked, nearly giving himself whiplash as he looked around the room.

Ainsley shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just a figment of your imagination, Malcolm. I don’t know anything that you don’t know.”

Malcolm watched, horrified, as Ainsley collapsed onto the floor, the black liquid sliding over her whole body. 

“You only have one hour left before you can’t escape at all anymore.”

“What?”

The same thin vines erupted from the black pool on the concrete. Malcolm shrieked and broke into a sprint, attempting to escape as the vines wrapped around his legs. He tripped, the vines unforgiving, and he slammed his head against the concrete.

Malcolm opened his eyes to pure darkness. He could not see his hand in front of his face. His head hurt and his chest ached and he pulled himself into a sitting position. 

The world materialized around him. Dad’s hobby room, the same way it was when he was a child, the fireplace roaring. Dad sat at the desk, looking just like he did twenty years ago - less wrinkles, his hair pure brown, his beard well maintained. 

“Your cocoa is getting cold, Malcolm,” Martin said. 

The mug, the same one from That Night, sat in front of him, steaming gently. 

“Go on, drink up,” Martin said. 

Malcolm had no choice but to pick up the mug and take a drink. He had avoided all things chocolate since that night and the taste brought him right back.

_ The girl slunk back to the wall, as far as the chains would allow her to go. “Please,” she sobbed. “Please, don’t do this to me.” _

_ Dad touched his shoulder and came around him. He held a syringe in his hand and he stabbed it into her thigh. “There we go,” he said. “That should keep her quiet.” _

_ Malcolm looked down at the knife in his hands. He measured its weight. _

_ “Please,” the girl said, her words slurring. “Please, my name is Sophie.” _

Malcolm tossed the mug aside and watched it shatter. Martin didn’t even flinch.

“My boy,” he said. 

He pulled on his hair. His hands shook. 

“Do you want to talk about what’s going on?”

_ Psycho. Freak. Killer _ .

“Where’s Dani? Where’s Mom? Where’s Ainsley?” Malcolm asked.

“Oh, they’re fine,” Martin said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I wanted to talk about you, boy.”

“Did you kill JT? Gil?”

“You think so little of me,” Martin said, clicking his tongue. “I would never hurt your  _ friends _ .”

Malcolm breathed heavily. His chest twinged and ached. His heart rate was still too high.

The door opened and Mother came in, carrying Dani. She had a trail of blood out of her mouth, running down to her chin. Mother set her in a chair. Dani slumped into it. Malcolm could not tell if she was breathing.

He stood on shaking legs and walked over to her, carefully pushing her hair aside and pressing his fingers to her neck. There was a pulse. 

“Malcolm, what did you do?” Dani asked, her voice panicked.

He stepped back. There was a knife in her heart, blood on his hands. She was bleeding.

“That’s my boy,” Martin said.

“No,” Malcolm said, backing away.

Dani coughed up blood, breathed heavily, She struggled and went still.

Malcolm knelt down against the wall and took his hair in his hands, pulling. “No, no, no,” he whispered. “Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

If this were a normal nightmare, he would wake up, straining against his restraints. 

Martin laughed.

“This isn’t real - wake up, wake up -”

Martin grabbed his shoulder, pulled him onto his knees. His eyes were wild and dark. “Shut up,” he growled. “Didn’t you promise Dani that you would stay?”

“And then you killed her!” Malcolm shouted.

Martin laughed but his eyes remained angry. “No, my boy,  _ you _ killed her.”

The door opened again and Gil came in.

“Kid, what did you  _ do _ ?” He asked, rushing over to Dani.

Malcolm sobbed and brought his hands up to cover his face. The knife would have his fingerprints on it, his hands had her blood, and Martin would tell the truth to save his own ass.

“She’s  _ dead _ ?! Bright, you killed her!”

“No, no, no,” Malcolm whined, crying and trying to curl back up.

Gil came around to him, pulled his hands off his face and held them behind his back. “Malcolm Bright, you’re under arrest for the murder of Dani Powell.”

Malcolm sobbed and Martin slapped him, hard, across the face. He shouted in pain and spat onto the concrete floor, a mouthful of blood.

Martin pried his mouth open and stuffed his hand down Malcolm’s throat. He gagged around his hand, his eyes watering, and he tried to squirm away, but Gil had handcuffed his hands together.

“You have the right to remain silent,” Gil said. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

Malcolm became hysterical, twisting and writhing under Gil and Martin’s grip. He couldn’t kick his legs and he realized, horrified that JT was holding his legs down.

“You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.”

“The fuck did you do?” JT asked, hostile.

Martin’s arm was elbow-deep inside Malcolm, his hand clawing around at the inside of his chest. It was a horrifying squirming sensation inside of him, something moving around and gripping his heart.

His vision flashed white and pain coursed through him. Martin’s hand came back up his throat. He could taste metal and bile and he gagged. Martin had pulled something out of his chest.

He spat and gagged before he looked back up at Martin. He held a still-beating heart in his hands, dripping the black liquid that had followed him.

“You see this, my boy?” Martin asked, grinning. 

He was quickly losing consciousness. 

“This,” Martin said, holding up the organ and taking a bite out of it, blood spattering his lips and black liquid dripping down his chin. 

“This is  _ mine _ .”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is a bit shorter than usual and i apologize but also not really because it's packed full of so much and i think that makes up for the low word count. enjoy!

Dani sat in the waiting room and thought about the first time she told a mother that her son was dead. She remembered the anguished cry and she remembered feeling that “sorry” would never be enough to convey how she felt. She remembered locking herself in the bathroom to cry afterwards.

She could not look at Jessica except in fleeting glances. They were stuffed into the waiting room, all five of them. Dani kept thinking of Edrisa. She hadn’t returned Edrisa’s call yet. She didn’t know how to explain this. She didn’t know how to break Edrisa’s heart.

Dani glanced up at the clock. The seconds ticked by, counting down the minutes until Malcolm’s heart would inevitably stop.  _ Tick, tick, tick. _ The noise drew her away from this room but it kept reminding her of how little time Malcolm had left.

She kept thinking about her father’s funeral. His friends had come up to her, commented on how she was so  _ grown up _ and her father  _ would be so proud _ . The endless cups of coffee and the displays of flowers that could have put food on their table for months. 

Dr. Henry emerged from Malcolm’s room after a while. Dani had lost count of the minutes.

“We’re ready,” she said. “Dr. Singh mentioned that one of you requested we remove the case, so it has been, for now.”

They stood. Jessica dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and JT held onto Dani’s hand. Her hands were cold in his. 

The five of them filed into the room. The incubator was removed, sitting on the far side of Malcolm’s bed. Several blankets had been draped over his legs. All the machines except the oxygen and the heart monitor were removed.

Malcolm was still shivering, every visible piece of skin shiny with sweat, and his face was still tight and drawn, in obvious pain.

“How long has he been shivering?” Dani asked, stepping up near his head. 

“For about an hour,” Dr. Voigt responded. “We believe it is a side effect of the LSD.”

“He looks so terrified,” Jesica whispered, standing near the foot of his bed. She nearly reached out to touch Malcolm but brought her hand back, holding it to her chest. Gil laid a hand on her shoulders.

“We do not believe that he is aware of his surroundings, or that he is dreaming any longer,” Dr. Voigt said. “His vitals are so low that we believe his brain is focused only on keeping him alive.”

Dani reached down carefully, brushed a hand through his hair. It was damp with sweat but it was soft. His forehead was impossibly hot with a terrible fever. 

Jessica picked her way over to Malcolm’s left side, taking his hand and squeezing it. Gil stood behind her, Ainsley at her side. JT was silent beside Dani.

“His condition may worsen any moment,” Dr. Voigt said. “We must be ready to replace the case. For that reason, we cannot give you any privacy.”

Dani rested her hand on Malcolm’s unmarred cheek, his stubble pressing into her hand. She sniffled as Malcolm unconsciously turned towards her touch and made a small noise, something like a whimper. She would never see Malcolm smile again, not in person. Only in photographs. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his hot forehead.

“ _ Please _ , Malcolm,” she whispered.

Dani jumped back as the heart monitor began to beep wildly. Malcolm’s body went taut, the shivering ceased, and Dr. Voigt stepped closer to the bed.

“His heart is seizing,” she explained. A team of nurses and doctors descended towards the bed, attempting to displace the five of them. “We must replace the case immediately.”

She stepped back into JT’s arms.

“Please, you must give us space,” Dr. Voigt said to Jessica and Gil. They stepped back but Ainsley didn’t, her fists clenched at her side.

“No,” she said. “None of this is right.”

Ainsley climbed onto Malcolm’s bed despite three nurses grabbing at her shirt, at her arms, anywhere they could reach.

“Bring him back,” Ainsley said directly to Dr. Voigt.

“Ainsley!” Jessica hissed.

“Bring back my brother,” Ainsley repeated. “It would kill him anyway.”

Ainsley pushed her sleeves up and grabbed the black mass on Malcolm’s chest. The heart monitor let out a shrill screech as Ainsley tore the thing off of Malcolm with a horrible, wet squelch, oily liquid erupting from the severed tendrils. The mass shuddered in her hands before it shot out a fresh wave of tendrils into Ainsley’s wrist. She fell off the bed with a scream.

The doctors swooped in with a defibrillator, succeeding in pushing Jessica out of the way. The black tendrils under Ainsley’s skin disappeared under her sweater and her eyes fluttered shut.

A gunshot exploded at the same time they shocked Malcolm’s chest. Dani startled at the next two and she saw Gil, his handgun drawn. The Black Mercy detached from Ainsley and one of the nurses kicked it towards the plexiglass case. They flipped it right-side up over the mass and trapped it underneath the incubator. A pair of nurses piled on top of the case to keep it weighed down while another two collected Ainsley, got her onto a stretcher. They carted her out of Malcolm’s room.

Jessica and Gil followed them out. The room was a mess of noise and commotion.

“Clear!”

Dani looked over. They were trying to restart Malcolm’s heart.

“Clear!”

The heart monitor beeped again, too fast and too loud as Malcolm took in a ragged breath and sat up. His hands clawed at his heaving chest and Dani took a step towards him. His eyes fell on her and Dani smiled, tears falling down her cheeks.

He began to scream.

Malcolm struggled backwards, falling off the bed and toppling over the heart monitor and the oxygen as he scrambled to press himself against the wall. He clawed at his chest, trying to get the remaining tentacles out from under his skin, but all he managed to do was spill more blood and black fluid onto the floor. His chest heaved between screams and he lowered himself into a crouch, his gore-caked hands fisting in his hair as he brought his knees to his chest.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up!” He cried, his voice hoarse and rough. His knuckles were white in his hair and Dani worried that he would tear it out.

Nurses swarmed him as Dr. Henry walked over to the cabinet and pulled open the drawers. “The drugs are still in his system,” she said. “He is likely hallucinating.”

Dr. Henry grabbed a vial and opened a syringe. The nurses hauled Malcolm to his feet and he struggled, kicking and twisting as he spilled more blood on the floor. He screamed and writhed while they tried to drag him to the bed.

“Stop!” Dani said. “You’re hurting him!”

She rushed over and pushed past the nurses against her better judgement. They dropped him and he slid back against the wall, covering his face with his hands.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up,” Malcolm mumbled.

Dani knelt down in front of him. “Malcolm?”

“No, no, no, no,  _ no _ .”

“Bright,” she said, reaching out and gently peeling his hands away from his face. He resisted but Dani was firm. “Bright, can you hear me?”

His eyes were impossibly wide, like the time he got high but a thousand times worse. His hands shook. Slowly, he nodded, staring at Dani.

“Hey,” Dani said, smiling. Tears blurred her vision.

“D-Dani?” Malcolm asked. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” she said, smiling and trying not to cry.

Malcolm pitched forward and wrapped his arms around Dani, like the nightmare in the precinct. Warm fluid soaked through her shirt and she tried to ignore the way Malcolm sobbed against her. She rubbed his bare skin, ignoring her own tears and the smell of blood.

Dr. Henry approached with a needle. Dani held onto Malcolm as she stuck it into his arm and she did her best to support his weight when he slumped against her.

JT helped them pick Malcolm off Dani and lay him on a stretcher. They disappeared from the room and Dani looked down at her front, covered in blood and black fluid. 

Dr. Voigt stood by the case, attaching hoses to it and turning the knobs on various canisters. “He’ll be in surgery now,” she said. “Go get cleaned up.”

“Is he going to be okay?” JT asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Go find your friend. I have a little weed to kill.”

Dani had to give up her shirt to a nurse with a biohazard bag. JT gave her his hoodie and she knew it swallowed her whole, but at least she wasn’t walking around the hospital in just her bra. They found Ainsley’s room just down the hall, Gil and Jessica sitting beside her bed. Ainsley, both her arms bandaged, was tired and irritated while Jessica attempted to hold a cup to her lips and guide her to drink some water. She blinked as Dani and JT came in.

“How is she?” Dani asked.

“I am  _ fine _ ,” Ainsley slurred.

Jessica smiled. “They removed the tentacles,” she said. “She’ll be sore and there might be some scarring, but Gil saved her life.”

Dani smiled at the gentle hand Jessica touched on Gil’s cheek. 

“They’ll let her go home when she’s a little less doped up,” Gil said.

“I am  _ not _ doped up,” Ainsley said. 

Jessica set the water cup down and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Sure, darling.”

Dani glanced around the room. There was space for another bed and she hoped they brought Malcolm here once he was done in surgery.

“How’s Malcolm?” Jessica asked.

“They brought him back,” she said, lowering herself into the couch by the window. “He was still tripping on LSD and he nearly broke someone’s nose, but he’s in surgery.”

Jessica sighed with relief and brushed Ainsley’s hair off her face. “What you did was so incredibly stupid,” she whispered.

“Well, he’s stupid,” Ainsley said. “I had to use his own tactic against him. Like in math - when you’ve got two negatives and they make a positive and then two positives also make a positive…”

Dani reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you,” she said. “Without you, he wouldn’t be alive.”

Ainsley smiled and nodded. “Told you I wouldn’t let him die.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the comments, kudos, reblogs, etc.! they keep me going!

Dani woke in the morning laying on the couch. JT and Jessica were both gone and Gil sat beside Malcolm, holding a cup of coffee in his hands. Dani sat up and stretched; she needed a shower. 

“Did you sleep okay?” Gil asked quietly, aware of both Ainsley and Malcolm sleeping.

Dani nodded. “Where’s JT? And Jessica?”

“JT went home briefly and Jessica, I believe, is calling Gabrielle. Malcolm’s therapist,” he said.

Dani rubbed her hands over her face. “Good. Has he been awake yet?”

Gil shook his head. “They came by to check on him earlier. Said it was probably fine that he’s still sleeping. The nightmares probably took a lot out of him.”

Dani glanced over at Malcolm, on his back with his hands still at his side. 

“I think this might be the longest he’s ever slept at one time,” Gil said.

Dani smiled. “Good, he needs it,” she said. “Hey, Gil… what did you say to him when you were alone?”

Gil sighed. “I told him I forgave him for all the stupid crap he’s done,” he said. “Especially ruining my car… And I thanked him for saving my life.”

“Make him pay for the car once he’s awake,” Dani said, shrugging. 

Gil laughed. “I might. I have no idea what the kid does with his money…”

“There’s that whole wall of weapons,” she said.

“What did you say to him?” Gil asked.

Dani stiffened and she looked over into the corner. 

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

She shook her head and took a breath. “I told him I love him.”

Gil smiled and leaned back in his chair, glanced at Malcolm. “Do you think he heard us?”

“I guess we’ll have to wait for him to wake up to tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

Both of their eyes snapped over to Malcolm, his eyes open and blinking. It is as much confirmation Dani will ever need to know that Malcolm is okay. Relief flooded through her as she stood and crossed over to him.

“I’m going to go get a doctor,” Gil said, standing and leaving the room. He stopped by the door. “And your Mom.”

Malcolm groaned quietly. “My profile,” he grumbled. “Uh, Hudson Yards is significant to our killer.”

“Bright, shut up,” Dani said, laughing.

Behind her, Ainsley climbed out of her bed, padding over in her sock-feet and hospital gown. She helped Malcolm adjust his bed into a sitting position.

“How do you feel?” Ainsley asked.

“Not great,” he mumbled, trying for a weak smile. 

Dani handed him the button that controlled his flow of narcotics. He clicked it and the machine beeped. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, gently laying a hand on his chest.

“Why am I here?” Malcolm asked.

“You don’t remember?” Dani asked.

Malcolm tensed and looked away, shaking his head.

“What’s going on?” Ainsley asked, squeezing his arm gently.

“Nothing,” Malcolm said.

Dani tilted her head. “You’re lying,” she said gently.

“I don’t remember anything,” Malcolm said, a snappish edge to his voice.

Dani and Ainsley shared a glance and relented. Gil and Jessica returned with Dr. Singh.

“Mr. Bright, it’s good to see you awake,” Dr. Singh said. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I fought with a bear,” Malcolm said.

“How would you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten?”

“Eight?” Malcolm guessed.

Dr. Singh checked on his IV, his narcotics pump, his heart monitor and scribbled some notes down on his clipboard. “Are you nauseous?”

“Extremely.”

Dr. Singh checked his vision and the sensation in his fingers and toes. “Any more hallucinations?”

“What?” Malcolm asked.

“We gave you LSD.”

“You gave me  _ what _ ?” 

“LSD,” Dr. Singh said. “You know, Lysergic acid diethylamide?”

“I  _ know _ what LSD is,” Malcolm snapped. “Why?”

“We wanted to attempt to sever the connection between you and the Black Mercy,” Dr. Singh explained. “We figured nightmares were the best way to do that.”

“ _ You _ did that? On  _ purpose _ ? Do you have any idea what I fucking saw?” Malcolm asked, his voice strained and one of his hands coming up to fist in his hair. The black gunk and blood had been washed out.

The heart monitor picked up speed, pinged, and Dani reached down, disentangled his hand from his hair. “Hey…”

Malcolm clenched his jaw, his hands shaking, and he looked away. Dr. Singh approached with a stethoscope and pressed it to Malcolm’s chest. He hissed quietly.

“I know that what you’ve just been through has been extremely hard,” Dr. Singh said. “I’m sorry. But please, these outbursts could be fatal. Your heart stopped twice. You are very lucky to be alive. For now, for your own safety, please try to remain calm.”

Malcolm took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m going to be sick.”

Dr. Singh handed him a trash can. “Desperate times,” he mumbled.

Malcolm gripped the trash can and vomited into it. Jessica sat gingerly beside him, rubbing his back slowly as he heaved and spat. Dani stepped back.

“You haven’t eaten anything solid in days,” Dr. Singh commented.

Malcolm took a deep breath and kept his head in the trash can. He shook his head. “Some… greasy black shit,” he mumbled. “It looks like oil.”

Dr. Singh nodded. “It’s likely from the plant,” he said. “We’re going to keep you for twenty-four hours for observation. Miss Whitly, you can go home any time you’d like.”

Malcolm pulled his head out of the trash can and peered up at Ainsley. “What are you here for?”

“Saving your life,” Ainsley said nonchalantly.

Malcolm frowned.

“I’ll explain later,” Dani promised, squeezing his shoulder gently.

He nodded and dropped his head back into the trash can, gagging.

“I’m going to step out,” she said. 

Malcolm nodded.

Dani shared a glance with Jessica and Gil before she stepped into the hall. She desperately needed a shower and she needed to call Edrisa.

Malcolm would still be here when she got back. She rubbed her hands over her face and tried to remind herself that he would still be alive.

She stopped by her apartment, took a long shower and finally changed her clothes. She made herself a meal and she allowed herself the simple comfort of eating sitting down. Dani had not realized how hungry she was. 

After she put her dishes in the sink, she went to Malcolm’s apartment. She fed Sunshine and let her out while she sat at his counter and called Edrisa.

“Hey! Where are you guys? The captain said that you four got a day off,” Edrisa said.

Dani smiled. “Something happened to Bright,” she said.

“Oh, is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” she said. “He’s at Bellevue.”

She couldn’t tell Edrisa about the alien plant - which she knew Edrisa would love - and instead skirted around her questions. Dani hung up and called Sunshine back to her cage. 

By the time she made it back to the hospital, Edrisa had just left and JT had left flowers behind, though he said they were from Tally. Ainsley had gone home to put on something other than a hospital gown. When Dani walked in, Gil and Jessica, exhausted, left to get something to eat.

Malcolm still had his head in the trash can.

“Been in there since I left?” She asked.

Malcolm grunted.

“Hmm, you’ll have to come out of there eventually,” Dani said, sitting on the bed by his legs.

“I puked on Edrisa,” he said, his voice muffled by the trash can.

“Yeah, I saw,” she said, resting a hand on his knee. “Don’t worry, I don’t think there’s any hard feelings.”

Malcolm pulled his head out of the trash can. His hair fell into his face and he had some black fluid on his chin. Dani handed him a tissue and he wiped it off before tossing it into the trash can. She took it from him and dropped it on the floor, within arm’s reach, just in case.

“You got your phone back,” Dani said, glancing at it on his rolling table.

He blinked. “Yeah,” he said, picking it up. “It’s got twenty percent battery left, though.”

“I’m surprised there’s not a password on it,” she said.

Malcolm looked at her, his cheeks reddening. “Uh…”

Dani raised her eyebrows. “You wanna talk about why you got so pissed off about the LSD?”

“I don’t like being drugged against my will?” Malcolm mumbled.

She chuckled. “Bright, you know what I mean.”

“I don’t really want to go there right now,” he said. “Or, ever.”

“Was the nightmare that bad?” 

Malcolm shook his head. “It’s not the nightmare that I want to forget.”

Dani tilted her head. “You can tell me about it.”

“No,” he said. “It’s… it’s something that’s never going to happen and I don’t want to think about it.”

His hand shook and Dani reached out, took it between her hands and squeezed gently. “Okay,” she said. 

Malcolm squeezed her hand back and shut his eyes. He pressed the button for more narcotics.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Dani whispered. 

Malcolm opened his eyes, smiled. “And leave all you guys behind? No way. I promised Gil he wouldn’t have to bury me.”

Dani snorted.

“The plant might have been showing me nice things but it would take a whole lot more to keep me from bothering all of you.”

“You dreamt of us?” 

“Of course,” Malcolm said.

Dani had thought it might be a world where his father wasn’t a serial killer, or maybe a world where he had never been fired from the FBI. 

“All of you were there,” Malcolm said. “But… mostly you.”

She looked at Malcolm and nodded, squeezing his hand again. She reached up and brushed some hair off his face. “You can tell me,” she said. “I won’t judge you.”

Malcolm took a deep breath and scooted over, patted the empty space beside him. Dani shifted, sat beside him, their thighs pressing together with blankets and jeans separating them. He held onto her hand and told her everything. He started with beef stew in his apartment and a sore chest before he moved to a stakeout with Gil, a perfect arrest, and dinner at his Mother’s house.

He described how he woke up in the hospital with a gunshot wound in his shoulder, how gaps in his memory quickly devolved into his father escaping Claremont, JT and Gil being murdered. His voice shook when he described Dani with a stab wound in her chest, from Malcolm. When he was done, he took a deep breath, leaning back against the pillows with his eyes shut.

Dani leaned over and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Malcolm smiled weakly, his breathing evening out. He leaned his head against her shoulder and fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have an academic paper to write and i am Sad about it so have this! thank you for reading!

Despite the doctor’s initial optimism, it took another week before Malcolm was allowed to go home. He spent the first day vomiting whatever the Black Mercy had left behind and then developed a fever that lasted for two nights. Once his fever broke, he thrashed in his sleep and opened the stitches on his chest. 

Dani stopped by as often as she could. She returned to work, with Gil and JT, but Gil ordered Malcolm take at least two weeks off and required that he see Gabrielle at least three times during those two weeks. 

Finally, a week after he woke up, he made it through the night without hurting himself, without having a fever, and he even managed to eat a few bites of real food. He repeated his Jello monologue for JT and Dani nearly reconsidered all her feelings for him.

She took the day off to help Malcolm get home and she made it to the hospital in time to find Dr. Singh demonstrating how to properly care for Malcolm’s wounds. His chest was a network of stitches and criss-crossing lines. Dr. Singh showed them how to gently wipe the stitches which made Malcolm grit his teeth and clench his hands, and rebandage them. He finished it off by rattling off a list of terrible things that could happen if the stitches were improperly treated.

Ainsley brought the comfiest clothes she could find in Malcolm’s apartment. Dr. Singh glanced at the clothes and signed the discharge form. “Would you like any help getting dressed?”

Malcolm shook his head. “I think I can do it on my own,” he said. 

Dr. Singh pulled the curtain shut around him and stepped out. Dani waited by the door with Ainsley.

“Do you think he can do it by himself?” Dani asked quietly.

Ainsley shook her head. “God, no,” she whispered.

As if on cue, Malcolm groaned and swore. “Can - can someone help?”

Ainsley looked at Dani and nodded towards the curtain. Dani sighed and ducked behind the curtain. Malcolm had gotten his pants on without issue but his shirt was another issue. 

“I can’t get my arms up without pulling on the stitches,” he mumbled.

Dani nodded and helped him pull it over his head. She rolled the shirt down over his stomach.

“I could have done that myself,” Malcolm said.

She smiled at him. “Sure,” she said.

They walked together to the pharmacy and picked up a full bag of prescriptions. She held his hand and helped him into the car.

Getting Malcolm up the stairs into his loft proved far more difficult. He promised he could walk it - insisted - but halfway through, he was panting and sweating and leaning heavily on the railing. JT sighed and forcibly picked him up bridal style and carried him to the couch in his loft. 

“He didn’t even break a sweat!” Malcolm complained, still trying to catch his breath. 

Sunshine chirped happily when she realized Malcolm was home and Ainsley let her out of the cage. She perched on Malcolm’s hand while Dani set his prescriptions on the counter. Jessica and Gil arrived shortly after with food - a feast of Filipino dishes with a serving of plain rice and broth for Malcolm.

Jessica complained that Malcolm had not come back to the family home but Dani knew that it had centered heavily in his nightmares. She kissed Malcolm when she left, promising that if he needed her, she was just a phone call away. Gil told him to sleep tight and JT left another bouquet from Tally on the counter. Ainsley was the last to leave, making Malcolm promise that he would watch her reports while he had time off.

“I guess you’re leaving soon, too,” Malcolm said, staring at the window.

“Nope,” Dani said. “Doctors’ orders that you need supervision.”

Malcolm sighed. “I don’t need -”

“It was either me or the German nurse,” Dani said. 

He looked at her. “You are much less threatening than she was.”

Dani laughed and stood up. She helped Malcolm up and he padded into the bathroom to brush his teeth - “I never knew my mouth could feel so gross” - while Dani poked around his apartment and found extra blankets. She would sleep on the couch. She got changed out of her jeans and into a pair of cotton shorts and an old t-shirt.

Malcolm laid on the bed and Dani grabbed the supplies she needed to change his bandages. She padded over to the bed and set down the bag on his nightstand.

“Thank you,” he said, reaching over to grab the supplies. 

Dani slapped his hand. “Do I have to restrain you?”

“You - I can do this myself.”

She sat next to him, her leg tucked under herself. “Remember, Bright, it’s either me or the German nurse.”

He sighed and laid back. His chest was nearly covered in bandages but Dani figured that it was better than the network of tentacles. She started taking off the bandages with the one on his cheek and he hissed.

“I’m sorry,” she said. 

“It’s fine,” he said.

She examined the line through his stubble as she peeled the bandages off his skin and tossed them into the trash can beside his bed. Carefully, she wiped the wounds, which made Malcolm grit his teeth again, but he quickly recovered when she gently replaced the bandages. 

She rested her hand on his shoulder, one of the unmarred parts of his chest. “Guess we have to talk,” she said. The phrase kicked her heart rate up - she hoped it didn’t cause a heart attack for Malcolm.

Malcolm nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want to ruin things with the team. If you want, we can forget this ever happened and just keep things professional.”

“Don’t be presumptuous,” Dani said. “I have feelings for you, Malcolm.”

He drew a shaky breath and nodded. In the low lamplight, he relaxed.

“After you almost died and I almost lost my only chance? I’m certain.”

Malcolm was silent for so long that Dani worried she had stepped too far. She had to remind herself that the Black Mercy had worked to show him his deepest desires.

“I just want to be certain about what you’re saying,” Malcolm said slowly.

Dani laughed, tipped her head forward. “I want this,” she said, scooting up closer to him.

Malcolm reached up, brushed her hair out of her face and cupped her cheek. Dani leaned down, hesitantly pressed their lips together. They relaxed into the kiss, lips easily slotting together in a kiss that Dani never thought she would get to enjoy. Malcolm pulled away first, his breath hitching, and Dani worried for a minute that she had killed him.

“Are you okay?” She asked, watching his hand press gently against his chest.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “I had to make sure it was real.”

She kissed him again. “This is real,” she promised.

Malcolm grinned against her lips and pulled her down. She nearly toppled onto him, bracing herself against the mattress so she didn’t hit the wounds on his chest.

“When this is all over,” Malcolm said, lips inches from hers. Dani could taste the menthol toothpaste. “I’m going to take you on a proper date.”

She smiled. “Yeah? To a pool hall?”

Malcolm laughed, covered his face with his hand. She didn’t want to stand up, break the moment between them, not when she had just learned how Malcolm’s stubble grazed against her chin, but she didn’t want to let herself get comfortable. 

“I hated you when I first met you,” Dani said quietly.

Malcolm snorted. “Didn’t Gil call me an acquired taste?” He paused, ran a hand through her hair. “What changed?”

“Well, your night terror happened,” she said. She could still recall the way his hands gripped at her back, the terror in his eyes.

“Mortifying…”

“And then when you got drugged.”

Malcolm laughed. “And you had to punch me so I would stop panicking and hallucinating.”

“Helped get that frustration of the first few days out.”

“When did you fall for me?”

Dani sat up, held onto his hand. There was not a specific moment where things had changed, where she found herself looking forward to cases Malcolm joined in on. It was slow and it was steady and it was a thousand moments all joined together. Moments that meant the world to her. Malcolm, scathed but alive after Watkins, locking himself in the briefing room with the ECT machine, holding down a landmine and cracking jokes.

“When you stopped trying to profile me,” she said.

He smiled, squeezed her hand. 

“What about you?” She asked.

“Every single time you’ve made me feel normal,” he said.

In any other circumstance, it would be funny. She would tease him, but he was earnest.

“None of this is normal,” Malcolm mumbled. “Having a serial killer father, sleeping in chains because of night terrors, nearly dying from an alien plant…”

“I think the plant is the real sticking point,” she said.

“Yeah, who knew aliens were real?” He chuckled. 

Dani knew that shortly she would have to get up, cross over to the couch, and nestle into a makeshift bed against the unforgiving leather, but she didn’t want to leave Malcolm’s side. A thick plexiglass incubator between them was already too much - the other side of the room felt like lightyears.

“Will you stay with me?”

“Are you sure?” Dani asked. The restraints were one thing but the stitches on his chest were another.

Malcolm nodded. His eyes were wide, pleading. “I don’t want to be alone…”

She stretched out on the bed next to him, holding onto his hand. Malcolm yawned, blinked.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said.

“Are you crying?” Dani asked. At her angle, the light reflecting off his eyes made them appear glassy and watery.

“No,” he chuckled. “But I probably could.”

She reached over him and shut the lamp off. They laid facing each other, though Malcolm was on his back. “I know how I could make you cry,” she whispered.

“Yeah? Try me.”

She kissed him one more time, careful not to touch his affected cheek. “I love you, Malcolm Bright.”

In the darkness, she could make out his face turn. He turned his face away from her and Dani worried that she had gone too far again. She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back. He sniffled.

“Damn it,” he mumbled. “I love you, too.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here it is! the finale! i wanted this to be longer, i wanted it to have more edrisa, but after a week of writing academic papers, this is how it turned out and i'm not mad. i love it a lot and i hope you do, too!

Healing was slow. Malcolm couldn’t get dressed on his own to begin. He could hardly eat and he slept most of his days away. The pain meds made him groggy and grumpy, but his wounds looked better every day. 

Dani barely went home. She worried that it was too quick, too fast, but things felt good. 

“I wouldn’t want anyone else taking care of me,” Malcolm said.

After two weeks, when Malcolm was finally eating to an acceptable level and had begun doing some light yoga in the mornings, Dani prepared a surprise. She took him to an appointment with Gabrielle, sat in the waiting room, and waited for updates from Jessica and Edrisa. They were in the apartment, setting up.

Malcolm emerged from therapy with a shaky smile and a lollipop for Dani. She did not ask how it went, what they talked about, but she took the lollipop.

“What are you planning?” Malcolm asked. 

Dani looked up from her phone. Ainsley had texted to announce her arrival at the apartment. Gil and JT would be there before she got back with Malcolm. “Huh?”

Malcolm tilted his head. “Come on. I’m a profiler. You’re up to something.”

Dani locked her phone and slid it back into her pocket.

“And Ainsley posted on her Instagram story that she was visiting her brother today,” he said, sighing.

Dani laughed. “It’s nothing big,” she said. “Just act surprised, okay?”

“For future reference,” he said, “I hate surprises.”

She smiled. “Then I guess I won’t look into your file for your birthday.”

Dani drove the long way home. She had orchestrated the whole get-together at Malcolm’s apartment but part of her didn’t want to give up her quiet moments with him, laying in bed with him in the morning and sharing sleep-warm kisses. Cooking dinner hip-to-hip with him, which she tended to do quite a bit because Malcolm was terrible at buying groceries.

It was half the reason she had planned a potluck get-together. His fridge was populated with glass bottles of fancy sparkling water and his pantry had Red Vines and bird food. 

Malcolm stopped them in the doorway up to his apartment with a gentle hand on her wrist. Dani worried that he was in pain and that he wouldn’t be able to climb the stairs on his own; at least she knew JT was upstairs.

“I’m fine,” he said.

Dani tilted her head. Half the time when he said he was fine, he was lying.

“Really,” he said, looking her in the eye. His hand was warm on her wrist, a gentle press that was barely enough to depress the skin.

“I don’t have to get JT to carry you up the stairs?” Dani asked, turning her hand around and intertwining her fingers with Malcolm’s.

He rolled his eyes as they started up the stairs. 

Malcolm fumbled with his keys when they reached the top of the stairs and Dani leaned in close to him. 

“Remember, act surprised,” she whispered, kissing his cheek. There was a scar forming there, where the lone tendril had slid up and disturbed the skin, where they had to carefully cut out the tendril at the hospital and sew it back up. It created a divot in his scruff.

Malcolm opened the door and stepped in before Dani. She rested her hands against his back, gently shoving him further in, as his family and friends, clustered around the kitchen island, shouted, “surprise!”

It was a stark contrast to the hospital waiting room. Jessica’s hair was perfectly done, her makeup flawless, and she smelled of perfume rather than bourbon. Ainsley was fresh from work and it looked like Gil and JT had both gotten enough sleep in recent nights. Edrisa, as well, was not covered in black vomit, but casual clothes and a bright smile.

They had bags overwhelming the countertops that they were unpacking: groceries and ready-to-eat meals with something simmering on the stove.

“Bright!” Edrisa said, hugging him gently. Dani worried briefly about the scars on his chest. “Dani said to bring food, and I wasn’t sure whether to bring groceries or things you could eat now - and then on the first day we met you said that most food made you sick, so I wasn’t sure if there were some things that I should avoid…”

Malcolm held her shoulders. “Edrisa, it’s perfect,” he said. “Thank you.”

She brightened. “I have some miso on the stove heating up,” she said. “It’s good for digestion.”

Jessica wrapped him up in a hug next, running a hand through his hair. Dani organized the cupboards as she put food away, thankful that they were now overflowing and she wouldn’t have to worry about going to the grocery store for some time.

“Why do you only have three chairs, man?” JT asked as he took the simmering miso off the stove.

Malcolm shrugged. “No one told me I was having company,” he said. He caught Dani’s eye as he said it and she thought about how Malcolm was a terrible liar.

“You’re not going to get rid of us so easily,” Gil said, leaning against the counter.

Ainsley ducked around Malcolm and stole the last chair before he could sit down. She pouted and offered her wrists up to him. “I’m injured, too,” she said.

Gil and JT, at Jessica’s behest, searched upstairs and found four more mismatching chairs. 

The last time the seven of them were in a room together was the day Malcolm almost died. The thought made Dani nearly choke on her miso. The sound of his heart failing still echoed in her ears some nights. The terror in his eyes when he woke up could rouse her from a dead sleep.

And now, they were working to replace those memories with laughter. Malcolm tried to uncover the details of any recent cases, his mouth foaming with any bits that Gil divulged, while Edrisa helpfully filled in the gaps. All the while, Malcolm held Dani’s hand under the table. 

Dani washed up with JT and Gil while Edrisa played with Sunshine. Malcolm cornered Ainsley, finally, and she could hear their conversation over the running water.

“How are your arms?” Malcolm asked. 

Dani had seen the wounds when Ainsley’s sleeves rode up. They were healed to pink, unbandaged, though they would almost certainly leave a permanent mark.

“They’re fine,” Ainsley insisted.

JT hummed as he dried off the dishes and stacked them on the counter, waiting to go back into the cupboard.

“What you did was so stupid, Ains,” Malcolm mumbled.

“Yeah, but it saved your life,” Ainsley said. “And we’re both here. It’s fine.”

Dani turned the water on to rinse off the pot. All the leftovers were sorted into the fridge, ready for lunches and desperate breakfasts.

JT was the first to leave, hugging Malcolm. “Glad you feel better, bro,” he said on his way out. He had to attend to Tally, get more pizza pockets before the store closed.

Ainsley offered Edrisa a ride home. Jessica and Gil were the last to leave - together - after they both shared a hug and tender moment with Malcolm while Dani occupied herself with putting dishes away and pretending she couldn’t hear them. It was so private, so intimate, for his mother to hug him and thank God for the hundredth time that he was still alive.

Once they were gone, Malcolm collapsed into one of the chairs at the counter. Dani turned, rested her elbows on the counter.

“Did you have a nice surprise party?”

Malcolm smiled but his eyes betrayed exhaustion. “It was wonderful,” he said. “Edrisa’s miso soup was  _ amazing _ .”

Dani grinned. He was adorable when he was sleepy, his hair falling into his eyes and early wrinkles visible under his eyes. “Get ready for bed,” she said.

Malcolm groaned as he pushed himself up off the counter and padded towards the bathroom. They brushed their teeth side by side, Malcolm pulling funny faces in the mirror to make Dani laugh. He pulled his shirt off and laid down on the bed, raising his arms over his head.

It would never stop being sexual and agonizingly teasing to straddle Malcolm while she changed his stitches. He was only in sweatpants and she only wore her panties - two thin layers separated them. But there would be a lifetime for that later, once he was healed.

She kissed his forehead as she began. “Excited to get your stitches out?”

Malcolm nodded, yawned. He lowered one of his hands and rested it, warm, on her thigh. “Only if you’re there to hold my hand,” he mumbled.

She laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen worse,” she said.

Malcolm opened his eyes, looked at her. He winced as the bandages pulled on his skin, pulled out the fine hair on his chest. “I never saw it,” he said.

Dani knew that he was referring to the Black Mercy and she nodded, balled up the used bandages, and tossed them into the garbage can beside the bed.

“What did it look like?” Malcolm asked.

Her hands paused, stilled against his chest. She would never forget how he looked on the bed at the hospital, shivering and bleeding with that thing on his chest thrumming in time with his wild heartbeat.

“Horrible,” Dani murmured, swallowing and restarting her motions. Bandage open, position, press gently against his skin.

Malcolm squeezed her thigh. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” he said.

She smiled and nodded. In only a few minutes, his bandages were replaced, and she washed her hands once more before she climbed into bed next to him.

“I love you,” Malcolm murmured.

Dani snuggled against him, eyes adjusting to the dark. “I love you, too.”

He wrapped his arms around her, pressed a kiss against her forehead. She rested a hand on his chest over his heart and felt the steady rhythm under her fingers -  _ alive, alive, alive _ .

**Author's Note:**

> please leave a comment, kudos, or come chat on [my tumblr](bibright.tumblr.com) if you have any questions!


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